The 'Evil' is Silent
by Sinister Scribe
Summary: A StableQueen pairing story. Set after 'The Doctor', an AU where Regina manages to bring Daniel's sanity back along with his body. Of course, nothing is ever that easy for her. Full summary inside. Be prepared for adult language, situations and a butt load of explosions, sorcery, werewolves and dragons. Evil/Charming friendship, Henry/Regina family galore.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, so this is my first Once Upon a Time fanfiction but I am a veteran of the site and you can read House, Justice League and some other stuff by me if you give my name a click ;). **

**I don't own any of the characters, if I did, there would be a lot more Regina love going on. She might actually catch a break every once in a while :D.**

**I'm currently about halfway through writing this story -maybe I dunno how long it's going to be- so I'm going to go ahead and post the first five chapters and see what kind of response I get. There's no point in finishing it if nobody wants to read it, after all. **

**Hopefully that will not be the case. **

**WARNINGS FOR RATINGS!**

**This story started off really angsty but i really hate writing angst so I quickly got over that and moved on to what I'm good at. Which is fighting, fucking and blowing shit up. There are HUGE magical fights in this, you really get to see Regina cut loose in this story because that's what i really wanted to see in the show (she's the Evil Queen for futz' sake!). There will also be derring-do from Prince Charming, lots of werewolf shenanigans, cannibals, dragons, Dark Ones and sorcery oh-my!**

**Brace yerself, Effie, it's going to be a ride.  
**

**ANYWAYS, the summary is as follows;**

_Regina manages to bring Daniel back to life and his sanity along with it but that's not all that comes along for the ride. With consequences toppling on her from all sides, Regina is set to lose absolutely everything just as the thing she wants most has come to within her grasp. Still, when you've hit rock bottom, the only way to go is up. With Regina forced to start again, to forge new friendships and take new risks, to learn to trust, she might just manage to scrape together some stability._

_Not everyone gets a happy ending, but she might just manage a hopeful beginning._

**Chapter 1 – Love Again**

"No! No! I won't let you hurt him!"

David Nolan –or James or Prince Charming or the Sheriff- was nearly bowled clean over by the frantic attack from one borderline hysterical Evil Queen –Regina Mills if you wanted to be mundane about it.

David braced his weight against the stable door, the pounding from the other side threatening to throw him away from it. David was by no means a small man, but even he struggled to hold back whatever was on the other side.

What threw him though, what shocked him more than a man raised from the dead, was Regina's reaction.

"He'll listen to me!" Gone was the poised Mayor, the ruthless Evil Queen.

She shook him as hard as she could, which was surprisingly strong for a woman of her petite size and beat at his shoulder with her hands, trying to stop him. Frantic and uncoordinated. Had she been thinking clearly, David had no doubt that she could have removed him, with lethal force had she been of a mind to, but she was terrified. All rational and calm thought up and gone.

He'd seen many things from her, master manipulator that she was, but never this. Never the sheer desolation, the helplessness that poured from her. It was her next words that nailed it.

"Please…"

David would never have expected that from her. Demands, bargaining, bluffing, any of those, but never pleading.

She collapsed against the door alongside him, her eyes begging him, screaming with it, David felt his chivalry gland act up.

She was the Evil Queen, that…thing behind the door was a monster. It had maimed Whale, nearly killed Henry and…and Regina knew that. She knew that and, far from being apoplectic with rage, far from burning the entire town down to get to the man that had dared even touch her son, she was pleading for his life.

"Let me talk to my fiancé."

David went slack against the door for a moment. Wavering.

"Please, David, please just let me try."

"Regina, he could kill you. He's dangerous." David was weakening and there was enough of the Evil Queen left in her to leap on the opportunity.

"I can look after myself. I'm hard to kill. You know that better than anyone." She managed something like a smile, trying to gulp down her tears. "Come on, Charming, don't tell me it wouldn't make your life easier."

"Regina," David spoke sharply, scowling at her, "I'm not about to let you be torn apart by some monster!"

"He's not a monster!"

David actually took a step back from her at the ferocity that poured from her.

"He's my fiancé and he's hurt and he's scared and I'm the only one that can get through to him. _Please_," Regina clutched at his jacket again, seemingly needing to in order not to just sink to the floor, "please let me try."

"I…"

"Somebody needs to go to Henry." Her head lifted suddenly and she looked into his eyes. "You promised me you'd look after my son. Go and do that now. Make sure he's alright."

"Regina, I can't." David shook his head. "Whatever is in there might not be Daniel. It tore Whale's arm off, he would have killed Henry if he could, why won't he do the same to you?"

"Could you ever do the same to Snow?"

David blinked. No. Never. He couldn't ever imagine being in enough pain to hurt Snow. To have come all the way back from the dead, to see her one last time…

"Please, David, Henry's scared and frightened. He might be hurt. Go and help him. He'll…he'll let you help him." She didn't look at him when she said it, her head resting against the worn wood of the stable door.

"Alright, I'm going to find Henry and I'm going to check on him. Then I'm coming back."

Regina looked at him and then he realised what she was going to do. If she couldn't get through to him, if she couldn't save Daniel…there might not be anything to come back to.

He had to hurry.

"Here." David turned his gun, offering her the hilt. She looked down at it, nonplussed.

"I don't even know how to use it. Even if I did, I couldn't." Regina's hands closed around his and she tightened his grip on the gun, pushing it back towards his body. "You keep it, swords are a little outdated here and…you need to protect Henry."

Everything in David was screaming at him. Screaming that this was wrong, that she was giving her last goodbyes to him, that she was going to leave him to try and explain to Henry why he had left the mother who had raised him alone in the stables with a monster. Other parts were howling that she was going to die, yet more were wondering why he cared. She was right, her death would solve a lot of problems but…but there was nothing he could do to stop her.

He knew her asking was a formality. She'd remove him with magic if she had to and –if he did as she asked- Henry would be alright and then he could come back and hopefully be in time.

He had to be fast.

"I'll be right back." He holstered his gun and then gripped her arms, squeezing. "Don't die between now and then."

She gusted a brittle laugh and an even more fragile smile.

"I'll do my best."

David gave her one last nod and then turned and ran from the stalls, heading in the direction that he'd seen Henry run off in.

Regina watched him go, her hand resting against the door of the stall. She felt the rough texture of the wood as if from very far away. She waited until David was completely gone and, slowly, turned to the door. She lifted her hands, she felt like she was moving through water. Sounds were distorted, every move seemed to take ten times the effort. She slid the bolt back, eased the door open and all the air left her lungs in a whoosh when she saw him.

Daniel. Her Daniel.

He was pressed against the back of the stall, his face turned from the light. He was so still. He turned, slowly, blinking. He was confused. He shambled forward, pushing off the wall. He looked curious, like he had seen her before but couldn't remember where.

Regina's hands dropped to her sides, she was aware she was smiling.

Daniel's hand lifted, questing for her face and Regina, felt her eyes burn but –for the first time in as long as she could remember- the tears threatening to fall were happy.

Something that changed when his face twisted, rage pouring over him like someone had upended a jug of it over his head. She was so horrified that she could only stand frozen when he closed on her. He loomed from the doorway, his hand manacled around her throat, and hoisted her off the ground..

"Dan…!" She tried to say his name, to get through to him, but she choked on the word before she could finish it.

Daniel lifted her effortlessly, her toes scuffing against the wood shavings on the floor, her hands clawing at his wrist. Stars burst behind her eyes when he shoved her roughly against the wall of the stall.

"Please…"

Regina could barely make him out around the red encroaching on her vision and the thunderous pound of her heart in her ears. All she could see was the mask his face had been pulled into and all she could feel was the steel of his hand banding her neck and the pounding in her head.

"I…I love you…" Her voice was dragged from her by willpower more than anything else and each syllable cost her in agony.

She saw the mask slip. Daniel's eyes flickered, something stirring in him, a memory, a moment, and her words finally got through to him.

Daniel sagged, ragged pants torn from him, his grip finally loosened and Regina dropped from his hold, wracking coughs hunching her over. Her throat burned, and she leaned against the wall to hold herself up. She couldn't give up, not yet.

"Regina?"

"Daniel." Regina's voice was torn from the crushing of her throat but that didn't stop her from flinging herself into his arms when he stumbled towards her.

It felt good. It felt so good to be held by him again. He shivered all over, hunched around her, clinging to her like a lifeline. Her brief moment of happiness was shattered by the hoarse sound of pain that was ripped from him.

"Daniel."

"Make it stop." He staggered back, curling over on himself. "The pain…make it stop…_please._"

"How?" She clutched at his arms.

"Let me go." His eyes were pained, desperate. Wracked by the agonies that raced through him with every movement.

"No!" She shook her head wildly. "I can't. I can't lose you again…without you, I'm lost." She cupped his face in her hands, pleading with him. To not make her do this. She couldn't do it. She couldn't let him go again.

To go back to the desolation, the loneliness, she couldn't stand it. She couldn't stand to be without him. She knew it was selfish, she knew she shouldn't let him suffer but…but she just _couldn't_…and neither could she let him suffer.

"I love you."

Truly, madly, deeply. Beyond all reason or rhyme, she loved this man. She would take any pain for him. She would -and had- live in hell for him. Her heart had already been broken, her soul shattered. What did it matter if it all happened again, so long as Daniel didn't suffer one moment more?

"Then love again."

Regina stared at him, sightlessly, even as he staggered back. Clutching at his middle and gasping in pain. She watched with a strange kind of disassociation.

Love again?

How could he even suggest that? How could she possibly hope to move on from him? How could anyone ever compare to him? How could she settle for less?

Daniel hunched over, ragged sounds of agony ripped from him and, when he straightened she saw it. She saw the light that was Daniel leaving his eyes, saw it disappearing and she lunged forward. She had to stop this, she had to do something.

What was the point in all that magic, all that power that she had clawed and bitten and torn at herself for, if she couldn't save the one man she loved? If she couldn't do this one good deed then she couldn't see the point in anything else.

There was nothing for her in Storybrooke, she would always love Henry, but she didn't have him anymore. He was with the Charmings, David would keep him safe until Emma and Snow returned and then he' have exactly the family he wanted and Regina…Regina wouldn't be around to be tortured by it.

It was madness, sheer stubborn stupidity, but she was going to do it anyway. She wondered if this was what nobility was like, if this was what it felt like to be a hero.

Regina's fingers laced through Daniel's dark hair and she tugged him forward, pulling his mouth down over hers and kissing him one last time.

True love.

Despite all she'd done, the pain she'd caused, the lives she'd ruined, she had always truly loved Daniel and she always would.

She felt the power, the unstoppable power of true love, burst from their kiss. A rainbow wave of light, untameable, uncontainable, to try would be madness.

Well, nobody had ever accused Regina of being sane.

She snapped the spell into place, consciously using magic for the first time in weeks. She caught the power, all of it, screamed into Daniel's mouth as it tore into her. Filling her completely, ripping into her body and burning her from the inside out. For a moment –one agonising moment- Regina thought she was going to lose it. She thought she was going to burn them both, but then she attached the new spell, forging a connection between her and Daniel, and poured her power into it too.

The explosion was incredibly powerful and stunningly localised. It went off like a nova between them a swirl of black and purple light, whirling over in a Yin Yang wheel of power, and then lashed out.

Into Regina and Daniel.

It was long moments before Regina came back to herself and she knew she had to be alive. Nothing dead could hurt this much.

Regina groaned, huddling in on herself to try and ease her cramping muscles. She forced herself upright. She was accustomed to pain. She scrambled up onto her knees, breathing through it.

She could already feel it…what she had done…the repercussions.

In all honesty, she hadn't expected to survive that, but there she was.

She had to blink several times in order to get the pink and green spots plaguing her vision to recede. She weaved alarmingly, her sense of balance shot, a ringing in her ears. She had just been in an explosion after all.

Regina went completely still when she saw him.

"Daniel!"

He was so still. Gods, please, no. Don't let it have been for nothing, don't let her have failed. She had to crawl over to him, she couldn't stand yet, and gripped him by his lapels.

"Daniel, please, wake up." She cupped his face in her hands, not caring that the heat pouring off him scalded her.

He was sizzling he was so hot, her tears evaporating to steam when they dripped onto his face. His eyes were closed, vapour rose from his skin and clothes. Excess magic. She'd poured a LOT of power into him. Hoping to obliterate the curse that caused him such agony. Repairing the damage done, forging connections between him and his new heart, taking the pain for him.

And what a pain it was.

Regina gulped, ignoring it, and collapsed over him, not entirely voluntarily. Her ear and cheek were burned by the magic snapping from him in miniature lightning strikes but she didn't care.

_Boom._

She jerked away, almost too afraid to believe, and then pressed her ear to his chest again.

_Boom…boom…bu-boom…bu-boom…_

His heartbeat. A thundering, living, heartbeat. Regina choked a sob and Daniel's breathing, deep and steady, lifted her as she lay over him.

Regina straightened, rubbing at her scorched face, not caring in the slightest, staring down at her true love.

He was back. She had done it. She had finally done something good, something worthwhile. It had taken everything she'd had and more, but she'd done it.

She'd saved him.

Something moved behind her and Regina whirled, confused for a second. She saw David staring down at her, shock painting his face and realised how she must look.

Clothes ragged from the explosion, her hair in disarray, makeup smeared from crying, bruises already rising livid on her neck and one side of her face seared red with burns…but happy. Grinning.

"He's alive." The words rushed from her in an elated whisper.

"Really?" David stepped cautiously closer, his hand on the butt of his gun and Regina moved, leaning over Daniel's body. She shook her head wildly.

"He's fine. He's not going to hurt anyone anymore. I promise."

David's mouth twisted. Yeah, because her promises had a good exchange rate.

"Help me." Regina stood suddenly and then toppled, her legs buckling.

David surprised himself by catching her before she fell.

"I'm alright." Her arms swinging out to help her balance belied her words, but she stubbornly staggered around to Daniel's shoulders, struggling to lift him.

"Should we move him?"

"We need to get him to the hospital." Regina grunted with the effort of trying to lift the much larger man. "Help me."

"Regina, I don't think we should take him to the hospital, there are too many other people there. If he isn't…better…"

"If he isn't better, if this hasn't worked, then I'll deal with it myself." Regina looked up at him. She had managed to get Daniel into a sitting position, his head lolling against his shoulder and her arms wrapped around his chest. "Then you can do whatever you want with me."

David blinked down at her again. This was new. This was disconcerting. He knew that Snow had told him that it had been her fault that Daniel had died but he hadn't really believed her. Seeing Regina now, he had to wonder how much truth there was to it.

He was also a little distressed that he was glad she wasn't dead. He'd handed Henry over to Ruby as she had run to meet them, bidding her to take the boy and keep him safe until he could return for him. Then he had hurried back to the stables, hoping that Regina was alright.

He frowned at that.

It must be because of Henry. His grandson was one of the fiercest advocates of his mother's redemption and –surprisingly enough- Regina actually seemed to be trying. Maybe it was Snow rubbing off on him, but David found himself inclined to actually let her try.

"Please, David," Regina seemed to force the words out, "help me."

David pressed his lips together. Then again, it might be because she was a woman in distress and he'd always been a sucker for those.

"I had better not regret this." David warned her and then stepped forward, pulling Daniel's arm over his shoulder and lifting the other man into a fireman's hold with a little effort. Damn, he was heavier than he looked.

Still, he was no pushover and David managed to get Daniel and Regina into the truck without too much hassle. He had to put Daniel in the flatbed at the back. Regina, unsurprisingly, had insisted on staying with him, cradling his head in her lap.

David threw the truck into gear and peeled out of the stable yard. This was weird. Beyond weird. Glancing into the mirror, he watched Regina's face. She was staring down at Daniel, unmoved by the bouncing of the truck, probably magic –he snorted at that- but her face had turned pensive.

He took that as a sign that Daniel might be deteriorating and pushed the truck as fast as he dared in the gravel road.

He couldn't be sure, but he suspected there might be another reason for the worry on her face. Maybe she was beginning to realise what she had brought Daniel back to. Who she had brought him back to.

The Regina that had married the king had apparently been a very different one to the woman that had worn the crown of the Evil Queen. She still loved Daniel –David had no doubt of that now- but, when Daniel came back, when he saw what she had become, would he still love her?

David huffed out a breath and pushed the truck faster still. He wanted out of this. He didn't want to feel sorry for Regina, didn't want to attribute human emotion to her.

Some people didn't deserve happy endings.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 – Clash**

"Doctor Towers?"

Doctor Rachel Towers –or Rapunzel to her post curse friends- didn't even look up from the chart she was scribbling over with the distinctive illegible writing of doctors no matter which world they came from. She didn't recognise the voice speaking to her but she was far too busy with the shambolic ward around her to waste time with silly things like introductions.

"Whatever it is, speak to the matron about it and she'll tell you where to go." Rachel dropped the chart into the appropriate slot and lifted another from the hands of the nurse at the station. She didn't notice the way the nurse was staring wide eyed behind her at whoever was speaking.

"But…"

"No, I don't have time to deal with you right now, yes, I realise that's terribly rude, no, I don't care, yes, you ARE stuck with a mere woman as a doctor, no, Doctor Whale is currently very much unavailable so –yes- you really ARE stuck with me…" Rachel began to reel off the answers she had tallied up from the FAQ's of the day and stopped only when she had gathered the files of her next ten patients and set off to find them only to find an incensed brunette blocking her path instead.

"You will help him now or I will rend you limb from limb."

Regina, the Mayor, Evil Queen and all that jazz, stood braced on those ridiculous heels for whatever resistance Rachel might sling her way. She was almost disappointed when the younger woman just blinked large green eyes at her.

Her voice hadn't been a shout but it had cut through every other sound in the waiting room of the hospital and everyone looked back at Rachel and the Queen wondering how the princess was going to deal with her.

Rachel frowned. She wasn't a princess anymore, she was a doctor, she was _useful_. Her eyes landed on Prince Charming, and she tossed the files she held over her shoulder onto the desk with a scatter when she saw the man hanging off Charming's shoulders.

"What happened?" Rachel stepped forward, her hands going to the man's neck and checking for a pulse. She found it –wow- that was _strong_. Lifting his head, she measured his breathing with the old world technique of holding the bright metal of her stethoscope under his nose and watching it fog with the heat of his breath.

"Gurney!" Rachel bellowed suddenly when it became clear she was being left to deal with this patient being held up by the sheriff by herself.

Nurses scrambled into action and a gurney was produced to lay the man down on in a matter of seconds, Rachel's eyes landed on the head nurse and narrowed when she found the woman watching the Queen rather than focussing on her patient.

"We're all going to have words about your conduct as _medical professionals_ later, ladies." Rachel's voice held a frosty chill to it. "I promise you're not going to enjoy it."

The nurse snapped back around, they all did, to focus on the strange man. They hurried to wheel him away to the ward and out of the waiting room.

Rachel was satisfied that he wasn't about to die off since his vitals seemed so strong. The steam rising from his skin was a cause for concern but Rachel knew magic when she saw it. She rounded on the two who had brought him in and slipped to full on Doctor mode.

Unlike most here in Storybrooke, her curse memories included having grown up elsewhere and moving to the small town for a quieter life. She knew she wasn't supposed to know exactly which city, but she remembered doing her residency in a heaving ER, learning to do triage on the fly, developing an iron thick skin and a disturbingly practical attitude.

Those memories clashed with the ones from the Enchanted Forest where she had been a battlefield medic in the war between the Charmings and King George. Exacerbated by the Blackguards of the Evil Queen who had seemed intent on causing as much bloodshed as Rachel had been preventing it and neither of them had cared which armies they had tended to.

"Who is he? What happened? What did you do to him?" She directed the last at Regina.

"I saved his life!" Regina took a step forward and stalled herself when Rachel didn't even blink.

"Wonderful. How?"

"I…magic."

"Evidently, he's _exhaling_ it."

"Shouldn't you be helping him?!" Regina took another step forward and it was only Charming's hand on her shoulder that stopped her from doing something inadvisable.

"His vitals are steady, he appears to merely be unconscious. I won't know more until I run tests and my nurses –despite a stunning portrayal to the contrary- are actually more competent than a bag of flatworms and can manage it themselves. I'll look in on him when I have a better medical history. Which I can get from you, yes?" Rachel reached up and loosened the tie on her hair. Pushing it back and tying it up once more in a new tail.

With the curse broken and magic once more in Storybrooke, Rachel's hair had once more returned to its magical state and had gone from a feathery jaw length style to a streaming cascade down to her middle back in a fortnight. She was also rocking the fade to dark. The crown of her head a shining platinum blonde and gradually growing darker through gold, caramel, chocolate until a deep coffee brown at the end.

Wonderful. She couldn't wait to try and do her rounds dragging seventy feet of hair.

"I don't know anything like that." Regina said. She kept looking beyond Rachel in the direction they had taken her patient.

"Start with his name. Who was he in the Enchanted Forest? How did he come to be this way? What exactly did you save his life from? Take your pick, Majesty."

"His name is Daniel." Regina fidgeted a moment which caused Rachel to cast a look Charming's way.

She couldn't say she was overly fond of the man, she tended not to like royalty in general despite her own heritage, but she was surprised at his apparently allied status with the Queen. She couldn't imagine his wife would be enamoured with that.

If she ever got back to feel any way about it.

"He was a nobody in the Enchanted Forest. A stablehand. As for what was done to him…Doctor Whale experimented on him. He hurt him. I repaired the damage…I think."

"Experimented how?" Rachel wasn't sure who Whale was from the other side, she didn't know of anyone else that did either, but she had the feeling that this information might become very pertinent to her.

She also knew that Whale had been down in the basement ward that Rachel wasn't supposed to know about doing who knew what and why…well, looked like it had come back to bite him in the ass, didn't it? Not that Rachel could summon much sympathy for the man, but having his arm torn off was a cause for concern when it could happen to her or –more importantly- her patients.

"Daniel was dead. He brought him back. He used an enchanted heart to do so." Regina spoke coldly, clinically.

"He…for real?!" Rachel burst out. "Back from the dead? Enchanted hearts? Are you freaking kidding me?!"

"Language, Doctor Towers." Regina rebuked her mildly and the doctor, who was really too young to be so, snorted. "Surely this isn't outwith the realm of your sphere of influence being from the Enchanted Forest as we all are."

"Sphere of influence?" Rachel demanded and stepped forward, her hands fisting in the pockets of her lab coat. "Let's break down my sphere of influence, shall we?" She ground out.

She'd had a hell of a shitty day putting up with the chauvinistic ass backwards view of half the people of the vaunted Enchanted Forest that women couldn't really be doctors –only _faeries _could be healers- verbally bitch slapping reluctant nurses into doing their damn JOBS without getting ensnared in their damn vendettas from their other lives and then dealing with the shambles that Whale had left when he'd fucked off apparently to raise the dead and now –NOW- she had the Evil Fucking Queen telling her to suck it up when it was all her fault!

"I was raised, according to my cursed memories, as a scientist, an atheist. I believe in science, logic and fact. Gods, magic and royalty never factored into it. Now I have my old memories back, the ones of being raised by a witch, having sunlight-flower-nonsense hair, so long it has several ZIP codes, and being hip deep in magically inflicted wounds such as the charming enchantment of throwing up one's own internal organs." Regina flinched a little at that but Rachel didn't let it hinder her stride. "So one part of me is saying 'just wrap him in your hair, sing a song and he'll be fine' and the other half replies with 'are you on glue?'. Thanks for that –by the way! So NO this is NOT in my sphere of influence and I would appreciate you getting over yourself for two damn minutes and offering up any information you might have that would alter this unhappy arrangement and help my patient!"

Rachel stood, toe to toe with Regina, her chest heaving with every breath and stilled when a soft clapping reached her ears.

Looking over, she saw the occupants of the waiting room and a few of the nurses had heard her entire diatribe and showed their appreciation and support with a quiet round of applause.

Pressing her lips together, Rachel seized Regina's arm without a thought to the consequences and led her down the corridor towards Daniel's room.

"I apologise. That was unprofessional." She halted outside the room and didn't notice Regina's attention switch to the unconscious Daniel inside. She watched with an intensity that belied her words of Daniel being nobody.

He was certainly someone to the Evil Queen and Rachel's mouth twisted. She stepped between Regina and the glass so the nurses couldn't see Regina's face anymore and spoke in a low tone that only the queen would hear.

"Control yourself."

Regina blinked and suddenly focussed the full weight of her regard on Rachel who –admirably or stupidly- didn't flinch.

"I get why you might not want people to know that you care about someone but –if you really do care- I need to know more about what Whale did to this man and how it might affect him."

Regina's jaw clenched and Rachel studied her. This close, looking as a doctor, Rachel saw how hellish Regina looked. Her eyes were red with the charming accompaniment of dark circles surrounding them, her skin was paler than it should be, she looked grey in places. Whatever she had done to help Daniel, it had cost her dearly.

Rachel's eye caught on the shadow on Regina's neck and she reached out without thinking and tugged aside the collar of Regina's shirt, buttoned higher than it really should be for the style. She studied the scorches –like bad sunburn- on Regina's cheek and ear.

"What the hell happened here?"

"It's nothing."

"You have handprints on your neck." Rachel gave her the 'really?' look.

"Daniel wasn't himself when he came back. He…he was dangerous."

"He did this to you?" Rachel jerked her thumb over her shoulder at the man lying insensate on the bed surrounded by nurses. "Is he a danger still? Does he need to be restrained?"

"I don't know." Regina looked suddenly vulnerable. "I don't know if…what I did, really brought him back. I don't know if it stopped the pain."

"Pain?"

"What Whale did to him hurts. Crossing the death barrier…those are Old Laws. Broken at the offending party's peril. The forces Whale has brought into play here…" Regina shook her head and looked at Rachel again. "He had no idea what the repercussions will be."

Rachel digested that a moment. She wanted to know what the repercussions would be, but she didn't want to get drawn off topic either.

"So…we have no idea if it will be Daniel in there when he wakes up or something else entirely?"

"Doctor."

Rachel turned to find one of her nurses standing in the doorway to Daniel's room. She pointedly kept her full attention on Rachel and didn't even glance at Charming or Regina.

"I think you should see this."

Rachel frowned at the tremor in Janice's voice. The nurse was a veteran of the wars and the wards of the hospital alike. It must be a hell of a thing to rattle her.

Rachel nodded and followed the nurse into the room. She approached Daniel's bed and considered ordering the restraints put on. Hmm, probably best not to do that when overprotective royalty of questionable sanity was loitering in the background.

Regina was there too.

Rachel made a mental note to send Regina off with one of her less flappable staff to have her neck looked at and she'd cuff the unconscious man then.

Rachel stalled when her brain finally cottoned on to what her eyes were reporting. She blinked several times and stared.

"…the hell?" She rounded the bed quickly, snatching up a pair of gloves and snapping them on. She leaned over the patient to get a better look.

Daniel lay on the bed, unconscious still, hooked up to the monitoring machines with wires and sticky tabs, an IV inserted in the back of his hand and his Enchanted Forest clothes unbuttoned so that he could be changed into a hospital gown. His waistcoat and cravat had already been removed and his shirt unbuttoned…to reveal the Y-incision scar running the length of his torso.

Rachel reached out to touch it, running her fingers over the seam of flesh, incongruously alive and warm despite the association of Y-incisions and cold grey bodies that sent her little scientific mind to boggling. It was real. Very real.

From either end of his clavicle to his sternum and then running down the centre line of his chest and stomach to stop just above the navel. The scar was deep as made evident by the silvery scar tissue that ran the length of it. Rachel leaned in even closer and stared, incredulous. Whale –if he really was the one that had done this- had stapled the wound closed rather than stitched it shut and the staples appeared to be made of silver rather than the conventional stainless steel and they…they had bonded to Daniel's skin and tissues.

Rachel's stomach flipped over uncomfortably when the scientist in her was left floundering for an explanation. If left long enough –as long as the scar tissue suggested they had been left for- then the staples would be consumed by the flesh surrounding them. The body's defences against foreign bodies demanding that they be coated in a padding of cells as a barrier to the rest of the body. Similar things happened with bullet fragments or shrapnel that couldn't be safely removed from the body but metal did NOT fuse with flesh.

At least, not with any medical practices that Rachel knew of.

Good gravy, Whale hadn't just added a heart to this body –this man- he had opened him up like a gym bag and rooted around in the contents before zipping it closed again.

Rachel's face hardened with revulsion and a fury that she couldn't fully comprehend. Regina was right. This was _wrong_ what had been done to this man.

"What is it?"

Regina's voice brought Rachel back to the real world with a thump and she turned to look at the other woman, blinking a moment, gathering her thoughts.

"Is it hurting him?"

"No." Rachel could have slapped herself when she realised she had no basis for that answer other than _feeling_. "At least, I don't think so. It appears, for all the world, as if this scar is years if not decades old. The flesh has completely knitted together…as has the metal of the staples. I don't think I could take them out without removing the surrounding tissues along with them."

"Will it cause him any problems?"

"It's ugly," Rachel shook the tail of her hair back over her shoulder when it slithered around, "I've seen neater jobs from butchers, but it's straight. The flesh has been joined levelly if not prettily. I see no reason why it should affect his mobility."

"But you're not sure."

"We'll know more when he wakes." Rachel measured the readouts on the monitor and leaned closer, studying the figures. Holy crap. "His vitals are off the scale."

"What does that mean? Is he getting worse?" Regina stepped forward, fully prepared to intervene with magic if science didn't yield the results she wanted.

Rachel glanced at her and realised how close to the edge the other woman was skating. With a look around the room that made her unspoken command clear, the nurses vacated with a graceless speed that would add at least another minute to the tongue lashing they were all going to get later for their unprofessional conduct.

"I simply meant that his body –for all intents and purposes- is _incredibly_ alive. His heart is BOOMING, his breathing his fine, his blood pressure is uncannily good for a man his age and his EEG readout tells me that he's simply sleeping off…whatever it is that's been done to him."

Regina's face darkened at the reminder of how she had come to be in this situation and Rachel sought to distract her before she had a walking natural disaster rather than an exhausted woman to deal with.

Then again, with Regina, they might be one and the same.

"I want to get a look at what the weather's like inside him. I don't want to do an MRI without knowing what kind of metal this is," Rachel indicated the silver staples joined to Daniel's chest and stomach, "would you consent to me giving him an ultrasound?"

"Like for a pregnancy?" Charming piped up and both women looked at him, apparently resigned to him having appointed himself resident conscience for the proceedings.

"Yes but the technology doesn't just work on uteruses and infants." Rachel was somewhat surprised that he didn't flinch like most men from the Enchanted Forest did at the mention of 'women's business'. "I can use it to read his internal organs just as easily."

"It won't hurt him?" Regina was watching Daniel again, looking like she was repressing the fierce desire to go to him.

"There's nothing to say that it will." Rachel gentled her tone.

"You're not certain." It wasn't a question but Rachel answered anyway.

"We've been over this. I've never come across anything like this before. This is a blending of magic and science that should not _be._" Rachel shrugged. "The best I can do is use the tools available to me to try and figure out what's going on. You brought him back. He's stable. I think he's going to make a full recovery. Let me figure out how to best help him do that."

"Alright." Regina nodded.

"Good." Rachel felt the relief pour through her. She wasn't afraid of Regina, per se, she certainly didn't hate her like many of the people in town did (that was a whole other kettle of fish), but she was incredibly aware of how dangerous the queen was.

Rachel had seen first-hand and in full lurid colour –most of it being red- how destructive Regina could be.

After Snow had captured the queen and lost her nerve at the execution, the rumour was that something had been done to the queen that meant she couldn't kill the Charmings.

Which had the effect of sending her completely off the deep end.

She rallied her Blackguard and cut a bloody swath through the realms. Attacking Snow and Charming's army with a ferocity that had been terrifying in its scale. She apparently hadn't cared at all which soldiers she massacred, quantity seemed to be the flavour she most craved and George suffered losses as heavy as the Charmings had.

At the height of her reign of mayhem during the war, Regina had been referred to as the Red Queen…because her habit of being surrounded by a fine mist of it.

Regina had never left survivors. Not intentionally anyway, so accounts of what exactly it was that she had done to the soldiers she came across were sketchy at best. Usually because said survivors were often missing limbs and a great deal of their sanity by the time anyone got to them.

Apparently she'd created some kind of monster and unleashed it upon the world. It would appear amongst the soldiers without warning, seemingly from nowhere, and lay waste to all it came across. It had the power to devastate entire battlefields, reducing both sides of the skirmish to nothing but red splatters and stinking wet ropes of innards.

The queen's arrival would herald the end of the battle and the monster would disappear.

Rachel tried to shake off the memory of the small terrified man that had related all of this to her. He had clutched at her hand, desperately trying to get all the words out before he choked on his own tongue, he was so frightened. He hadn't been a soldier, which had apparently saved him from the monster, but he _had_ been terrified out of his mind.

Rachel shook free of the memories and saw Regina recognise exactly what the doctor was thinking about and something very much like shame flickered over her face before she squared her shoulders and quashed it ruthlessly.

"Go on then," Regina waved at the bed with Daniel on it, "do your job."

Rachel opened her mouth to tell the queen where to stow her attitude and was cut off by a soft moan. She whirled to the bed, her primary thought that she had no idea what would be waking up and that the restraints were all the way down the hall in the storage closet, the next being that he was a patient first and a potential killing machine second.

"Daniel?" Rachel stepped closer to the bed, lifting a penlight from her pocket and shining it into his eyes as he opened them.

He squinted and grimaced at the bright light, his pupils contracting to pinpoints and expanding again when she took the light away.

He tried to sit up and Rachel gently but firmly pushed him down again.

"Easy now, you've been through the wringer." She kept an eye on the readouts. His heart rate had increased, not unusual when the body woke up, and was already settling back to its slow but steady resting beat. "Let's take it easy, hmm?"

"Where…?" Daniel looked about himself and tried to sit up again, Rachel gave in and helped him sit instead of potentially injuring or stressing him by pushing him down again.

"You're in the hospital. You crashed for a while there." Rachel reassured him in her best bedside manner she could muster. "How are you feeling? Any pain?"

"No, I…Regina!" He lunged suddenly and Charming swept forward having slunk closer cautiously, ready to whip Rachel back out of reach should Daniel decide that he'd rather crush necks than talk.

"Where is she?" Daniel gripped Charming's sleeves because he was the closest available target. "I hurt her, I was going to kill her, she's not…?"

Rachel was surprised at the horror in his face at the thought of Regina being hurt. He looked devastated at the very prospect. Horrified that he had caused her pain. If Rachel had needed it, his reaction was certainly enough to convince her that Daniel certainly wasn't a nobody, least of all to the Evil Queen.

"Hey, she's fine," Rachel hurried to reassure him before he became more agitated, "look she's right…where'd she go?"

Charming twisted to look too and all three of them stared at the empty spot where the queen had stood not a moment ago.

Rachel felt her brows rise in surprise.

Of all the reactions she had expected from Regina upon the waking of the man she had so fiercely protected, fleeing had certainly not been one of them.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 – No Going Back**

**The Next Day,**

Regina entered the diner with a jingle from the bell above it.

It was just after ten, so late enough to have missed the morning rush but early enough to avoid the crush of the lunch crowd. Not that she had planned it that way, because she wasn't afraid of anyone, but neither did she have the patience to put up with the glares and mutterings either.

Then again, her battle with her promise to Henry had never been easier.

Regina had never felt so weak before. She was exhausted. Even when her mother had been at the height of her power and Regina had been afraid of the sound of her own voice lest her mother seal her mouth shut –again- she hadn't felt so powerless. At least then she'd had the illusion of escape, the thought that a fast enough horse and just the right opportunity would take her away from it all.

Now she didn't think she could have lit a candle if her life depended on it. It was much easier to avoid the temptation of magic when the very prospect of using it made her feel physically ill.

The last time she had used it she…she had been about to kill Daniel. The one man she had thought she'd never be able to harm, the one person she had believed would be free of the monster that lived under her skin and she'd been a hair's breadth from…but she hadn't. Regina reached the bar and waited to be served. She took comfort in that small knowledge; she had tried love. For the first time in a long time, she had tried to love someone rather than loathe them. She had tried to help him with kindness rather than cruelty.

It had cost her. Oh, how it had cost her, but Daniel was well. He was better, awake and talking judging by what she had heard. The prognosis was good –the answer machine messages from Doctor Towers informed her- he was ridiculously healthy considering he had been dead for the better part of forty years.

Healthy enough to be released soon. Out into the town and the general populace where he…where he would hear about her.

He would ask questions, Daniel was the curious sort, and people would have no reason not to give him answers. Depending on who he asked, she imagined there would be no shortage of those gleefully willing to extol her sins to him in full lurid detail.

She had brought him back, the love of her life, and soon he would know exactly who she was.

"My usual, please." Regina didn't bother trying to smile when Ruby approached her.

"Please?" Ruby frowned at her.

"I said please." Regina rubbed at her temple, she really didn't have the patience for this.

"I know. That's what's weird." Ruby looked her up and down. "Are you okay? You look like you're about to fall over." Ruby comforted herself in the knowledge that it wasn't the wellbeing of the Evil Queen that made her ask, it was just that she didn't want to have to deal with the hassle of a dead body when the lunch rush turned up.

"Caffeine withdrawal." Regina said pointedly.

"Right." Ruby nodded. "One triple shot coming right up."

Regina couldn't be that ill if she still managed to summon that arctic chill to her voice.

She looked like hell. Coiffed and made up as usual, impeccably dressed as was expected, but she stank of pain. Ruby's senses had been sent sky high when the curse had been lifted and she could now identify scents like normal people could colours. Not just regular ones either, scents that humans couldn't identify. Sadness, for example, had a deep Prussian blue hue, grief was a solemn indigo and pain was a crackle of white shot through with black.

Regina was surrounded by a miasma of all three. Drowning in the typhoon of agony. Still, she stood with her spine ramrod straight, one hand resting on the bar, her purse dangling at her side, and stared down one of the dwarves that was glaring at her.

Happy looked away first.

Ruby turned her full attention to the coffee machine before the other woman caught her staring.

She was disconcerted to realise that Regina had always smelled like that. Of apples –because she constantly ate them- honey, coffee, paper and ink usually, the soft smell of Henry embedded in there despite him having been absent from her life recently and, of course, the pain.

Ruby hadn't been able to identify the individual strains as her cursed self, she'd just known the smell of Regina without –in her cursed haze- realising that not many people identified others by scent first. Now though, in her natural form, Ruby realised that the Evil Queen must have been like this all the time. Every day. In the eye of the storm of anguish that whirled around her.

Was it any wonder she had been torn apart by it?

Ruby stiffened at that thought.

No, she wasn't sympathising…was she?

Maybe it was because it was familiar. Ruby had been steeped in a similar cloud of grief after…after Peter. She'd thought she might drown in it. It had clouded everything else for the longest time, blocking her other senses, making wolf's time so much worse. She had been shattered for such a long time, it had taken Snow months and months to piece her back together…and Regina didn't have that.

She didn't have any friends. Nobody.

Ruby wondered, for a brief and shuddering moment, how she might have turned out if Snow hadn't been there to help her. Without her best friend, what might she have become?

Not good, was the only conclusion she could come to.

Regina was powerful, a sorceress without peer, but Ruby was no lightweight. She could and had devastated entire platoons of soldiers back in the Enchanted Forest. In the war with King George, against Regina's terrifying Blackguards, none of them had been able to stand in her way. Silver weapons weren't exactly standard issue and –if Peter's death had been allowed to drive her mad- she might well have gone much the same way that Regina had.

Ruby set the lid onto the coffee, making sure that it was securely in place and heaved in a steadying breath. She couldn't believe she was about to do this, she couldn't believe she was about to be _nice_ to the Evil Queen.

Well, she was going to try, she doubted Regina would make it easy on her but…yeah, she was going to make the effort. Maybe, just maybe, Regina wasn't completely evil. Maybe she was just really, really, REALLY, broken.

Snow had always been Regina's strongest advocate. Willing to forgive the woman who had helped raise her past the point of all sense –in Ruby's opinion- but staunchly refusing to give up. Maybe Ruby was finally seeing what Snow had seen all along.

She owed it to her bestie to at least try.

Ruby turned, a smile on her face, preparing to steel herself against Regina's refusal to accept even the smallest hint of kindness but stubbornly set on trying anyway. Her smile disappeared when the jangle of the bell announced another customer and Regina's entire demeanour changed.

Ruby was convinced the diner actually got colder.

"Get. _Out._"

The snarl that rumbled from Regina made Ruby's wolf sit up and take notes.

Doctor Whale hesitated, halfway to the bar, when Regina spoke. He glanced about the diner, as if searching for an exit without turning his back on the woman who was about half his size, and then steeled himself.

"I have as much right to be here as you do."

"Not today." Regina very deliberately set her purse on the stool beside the bar. "Not while I'm here."

"You're not the queen anymore. You're not even the Mayor." Whale refused to back down. "You have no power here."

"Do you _really_ want to test me?" Regina had started to shake. To tremble and Ruby knew it wasn't from fear.

She was trying not to kill him.

Ruby could smell the magic rising in the other woman. The rage that had burned away the grief and agony, that had consumed everything else and left just that snatching hungry fire engulfing Regina's entire self. No wonder she'd do anything to feed it.

"I did you a favour." Whale frowned at her. "I brought him…"

Whale didn't even get to finish. Ruby almost heard the twang of Regina snapping.

Faster than Ruby would credit her for, Regina launched herself at Whale. Not with magic, like everyone had expected, but with anger. Rage. Regina was apoplectic and she appeared to have completely forgotten that she could have skinned Whale with nothing more than a flick of an eyelash and a dose of magic.

"Regina!" Ruby dropped the coffee cup and ran for the end of the bar, knowing she wouldn't get between them in time for Regina to maybe do some damage, but also knowing she was probably the only one strong enough to prise them apart.

She would later come to realise that she should never underestimate Regina.

Regina slapped Whale's half raised arm away with a contemptuous rap of her knuckles and then closed both hands around his throat. Her leg lifted, slamming her shin between his legs and sending Whale crumpling to the floor. Regina followed him down without missing a beat, straddling his chest, her thumbs pressing down onto his carotid arteries and his windpipe simultaneously. With a flex of her legs, she shifted so that her knees could contract about his ribs and force his lungs to empty.

With that last wheeze of breath gone from him, Regina leaned forward and put her full weight on his neck. She could feel the cartilage in his windpipe begin to give and eased off the pressure just a fraction. That would kill him instantly and she wanted this to be slow.

The most terrifying thing about it all was the expression her face had frozen into. Not twisted in rage, not a war mask, but completely calm. Serene almost. She watched seemingly dispassionately as she methodically throttled the man under her.

Whale fought wildly. He bucked and kicked, lifting his knees to slam them into Regina's back. His arms flailing, clawing at her slim wrists until something crackled alarmingly in her arm. Seeing that wouldn't work, Whale punched her. Again and again he slammed his fist into her face.

She didn't seem to notice any of it.

Whale knew he didn't have long. His knowledge as a doctor and a scientist told him that he had less than fifty seconds before he would never recover from this. It wasn't just the lack of air, but the lack of blood getting to his brain that would kill him.

Adrenaline flooded his system, poured through him by the frantic pounding of his heart. He became all the stronger in his death throes but he just couldn't dislodge her. This was ridiculous, he should be able to fling her off with little effort considering how much stronger he was but then she did have the crazy on her side.

He kept hitting her, anywhere he could reach, blood pattered down onto his face from her split lip, the cut on her cheek he had lain open with his ring, the claw marks he had put into her neck and chest.

Her expression never changed. Not even a flicker.

"Regina!" Ruby had both arms wrapped around Regina's waist trying to pry her away. "Regina, you're killing him!" Ruby hauled and lifted Regina away but ended up dragging Whale up too when Regina's grip didn't lessen in the slightest.

"Please!" Ruby moved her grip to Regina's wrists, trying to pull her fingers away one by one if she had to. Her eyes wide when she realised that Regina had buried her fingertips completely into the meat of Whale's neck.

That wasn't going to work either, not unless Ruby wanted to take half of Whale's throat with her when she pulled Regina away.

"Regina, please." Ruby tried to duck between her and Whale, trying to look the queen in the eye. Regina didn't appear to see or hear her at all. "Don't make me hurt you. Don't make me break you. Henry will never forgive me."

At the mention of her son, a flicker passed over Regina's face. Just for an instant, but it gave Ruby hope.

"Look at what you're doing, Regina. You're murdering him. Didn't you promise you wouldn't do that anymore?" Ruby spoke frantically. "If you do this, you can never come back from it."

Regina blinked several times in quick succession. She gulped in a breath and then steeled herself again.

"What's to come back to?"

"Oh hell," Ruby realised what she was going to have to do, "I hope you're as hard to kill as you seem to be."

Hauling back, Ruby let fly with a mean right cross. Regina's head rocked back and to the side, lifting Whale off the floor when her grip didn't slacken. Ruby did it again.

And again.

Stronger each time, amazed that Regina still hadn't let go. Once more, faster and stronger still, and the knock out reflex finally kicked in.

Regina toppled from Whale's body, forced to go limp as she lost consciousness. She slumped over the floor, sprawled gracelessly. Her face a mess of bruising and blood, more of it staining her hands.

Whale sucked in a breath with a hoarse whoop and curled in on himself, clutching at his ribs and coughing raggedly. His eyes were wide and terrified and he scrambled madly away from Regina, even though she was quite obviously unconscious and no threat to him.

Well, not for now.

"The ambulance is on its way." Happy cautiously approached.

"See to him." Ruby ordered him, pointing to Whale, crawling over him to get to Regina.

She frantically turned her over, hoping against hope that she hadn't snapped her neck. Huffing a breath of relief when nothing crackled, her neck didn't have extra corners, and her pulse was steady if a little weak under Ruby's fingers.

Making a snap decision that she may regret later, Ruby gripped Regina by the arms, lifting her off the floor and slung the older woman over her shoulder in a fireman's hold.

"What are you doing?" Happy looked up at her wide eyed.

"Saving her life." Ruby said grimly, heading for the door and swinging her way out of the diner.

"You owe me big time." Ruby muttered to the unconscious Mayor.

_**Later, the Cells**_

Regina awoke to the sensation of magic invading her body.

Her eyes snapped open and she stiffened when a searing golden light blinded her. Something was covering her mouth and nose. Panic seized her and the magic answered without conscious thought. She seized the invading spell, took it in the grip of her power, and wrenched it apart.

Regina hadn't even noticed the musical hum going on somewhere over her head until it cut off on a scream and the bindings around her head yanked on her. She struggled madly, clawing at the silk scarfs that had apparently been used to contain her, tearing them from around her head and backing away in a wild scramble until her back smacked against a breezeblock wall.

"It's alright!" Rachel shouted from where she had tumbled to the floor. "I'm fine! Don't provoke her."

Regina was still pressed against the wall, her chest heaving, and she looked about herself, ticking off who was where and the location of the nearest exit. Her panic rose a few notches when she saw that the nearest exit was all the way across the room, with the obstacles of Charming, Ruby and a man she didn't know between her and there and –oh, yes- the bars of the cell hemming her in as well.

A cage, another cage. Regina felt herself begin to shake. The last time she had been in this particular cell hadn't ended particularly well for her either.

She fought for control, but it was a fierce struggle. Her chest was heaving, she knew her eyes were wide and frightened and she couldn't seem to find the mask she usually hid behind.

"Rapunzel!" The stranger threw himself towards the door to the cell and Regina tensed when he came closer. If the door opened, she could make a break for it. "Let me in, she's hurt!"

He was caught by Charming to keep him away from the bars and Ruby was forced to help when it looked like the stranger was going to overpower him. It took both of them to hold back the struggling man, his handsome face twisted in anger and worry.

"Eugene." Rapunzel, Rachel, didn't shout but her voice got through to him.

When he finally looked at her, she continued in a low and calming tone.

"I'm fine. She woke up snared in magic, blindfolded and gagged by she didn't know what." Rachel laboured to her feet with a slight grimace and dusted herself off. "I'd have come out swinging too."

"What were you doing to me?" Regina's voice was a hoarse rasp and she hoped nobody else noticed how weak it sounded.

"I was healing you." Rachel was spooling her hair back into a tail. It fell to her hips now and she braided it hurriedly, apparently more than familiar with getting it out of her way.

"What happened to clashing spheres of influence?" Regina kept a weather eye on Eugene, who was still glaring daggers at her. He was going to have to do better than that, Regina had survived glares from gorgons.

"I was worried about swelling in your brain." Rachel righted the chair she had been sitting in before Regina had knocked her out of it. "It's not like I can take you to the hospital."

Regina lifted a hand to her face and stilled when she saw her fingers stained in blood. She frowned and studied the rest of her. Her suit was ripped, buttons torn from her shirt so that it gaped to show the scratches on her neck and chest. They were pink and raised, angry welts, but Regina could feel the golden sense of healing that had gone into them.

"Come on, let me look at you." Rapunzel scooted the chair cautiously closer and waited for Regina to decide what to do.

Regina watched her warily, like a beaten dog afraid to trust even the hand that feeds. Watching the others outside the cell for signs of aggression, she carefully scooted to the other side of the bed.

The floor was cold under her bare feet and it seemed to be a shocking reminder of the real world.

Rachel moved her chair closer still, having to put her knees on either side of Regina's in order to get close enough, and gently took Regina's chin in her hands.

"I know I wanted to get a look at your neck, but I didn't want it to be this way." Rachel murmured, her gloved hands moving carefully down Regina's neck from jaw to clavicle. Holding her jaw once more, Rachel carefully turned Regina's head from side to side, testing her range of movement. "That hurt?"

"No."

"Liar."

"Then why did you ask?" Regina tried to pull away but Rapunzel just rolled her eyes and tugged her closer again, moving on to study her face. Checking how much she had actually managed to heal.

Regina had been a _mess_ when Rachel had first seen her. Ruby had hit her so hard that she had dislocated her eye socket and fractured her jaw. Regina's wrist had been broken from where Whale had tried to knock her away, one of her fingernails had been torn out when she had forced them into Whale's neck. She'd had gouging marks in her neck and chest where Whale had torn at her to go with the bruises that still ringed her throat from where Daniel had tried to choke her not two days previous.

She had been through the wringer.

Not to mention all the old scar tissue that Rapunzel had been able to sense when she had done the healing. There was always a little of a two way street going on when Rapunzel had used her hair to heal, she guessed because of where the magic was being focussed, but it had been all over the place in Regina. Wounds healed magically a long time ago but it had felt like scars on top of scars.

Had Regina not had the magic to rebuild herself from each of the wounds, she'd have more closely resembled a patchwork quilt than she would have anything human.

"Bedside manner." Rachel prodded at the swelling still hanging around Regina's eye. The other woman didn't even wince, but Rachel knew it had to hurt.

"Is Whale…?"

"Dead?"

Regina carefully nodded.

"No. Ruby separated you before it got that far." Rachel's voice was flat, emotionless. "It's a good thing you wanted him to suffer or else she wouldn't have managed it."

Regina didn't rise to the bait.

"Why'd you do it?"

"I'm evil."

"Pull the other one, it's got bells on." Rachel spoke mildly. "It's because of Daniel, isn't it? I would have thought, since he's alive again, that you'd be happy."

Rachel still didn't know the exact relationship between Daniel and Regina but she knew that Charming had mentioned the word fiancé a couple of times and that Daniel had shown more than a little concern when it came to Regina's health after what had transpired in the stables.

"It had nothing to do with him." Regina didn't look at her as she spoke. "It was all me."

"Well, yes, a diner full of witnesses will attest that it was definitely you choking the life out of the good doctor, what I want to know are your motives behind it. What was Whale really trying to do with Daniel?"

Regina remained stonily silent and Rachel tried something different.

"What did you do to me?"

Regina looked at her with a carefully blank expression.

"When you pushed me away, you did something magical, what was it?"

"Reversed the direction of the spell. Turned sympathetic to empathetic."

Rachel stilled when she realised what that meant. Her hands pausing on Regina's face and she looked inward, focussing on what she had felt mere moments before, the depth and range of it. She frowned and turned her attention back to Regina.

"I felt what you feel?"

"Just for a moment." Regina was watching Charming, Ruby and Eugene on the other side of the bars again. "The intensity overloaded the connection and snapped it. As I had intended."

Ruby and Charming appeared to be hip deep in a furiously quiet argument and Eugene stood just on the other side of the bars, glaring stonily at Regina.

"You feel like that all the time?" Rachel's hands slowly lowered from Regina's face.

"Hmm." Regina answered absently, more focussed on trying to hear what Ruby and Charming where saying. She didn't have to have the wolf's hearing to know it involved her.

"Regina," Rachel leaned forward and forced the other woman to shift her attention to her, "you mean to tell me that the agony that knocked me on my ass, that toppled me like a bowling pin –protected though I am by these damned _tresses_- is a constant fixture in your life?"

"What of it?" Regina frowned, trying to draw away. She was _not_ weak.

Maybe if she kept telling herself that, she'd start to believe it.

Rachel's mouth opened and she floundered a moment. She'd had no idea. Well, she'd had a _part_ of an idea, an inkling of –medically- what kind of stressors it might take for someone to go completely off the deep end and curse an entire world, magically lobotomising everyone in it…but this was a whole other ball game.

"Do you want something for it?"

"There isn't anything for it." Regina frowned at her, looking at her like she was the one that'd had the crap kicked out of her by a werewolf and was suffering some brain swelling herself.

"There is in this world, there's medicine for this kind of thing. Drugs that can alter the brain chemistry. Help you."

"I'm not taking anything you give me." Regina sat back.

"I'm a doctor, I'm not trying to hurt you." Rachel spoke in an even tone.

The _pain_. Even at her lowest, Rachel had never felt anything like it. The part of her that was the healer, not the hardened scientist but the girl that had waded through rivers of blood to help the wounded simply because she could, that part of her was horrified at the thought of anyone living with that kind of agony.

"Whale is a doctor and he hurt me." Regina's voice was small and she looked suddenly angry. With herself, Rachel surmised. She hadn't meant to say it.

She hadn't meant the punching and the scratching either.

"I'm not Whale." Rachel sounded insulted at the very notion. "He and I will be having _words_ of his extra-curricular practices as well. I promise you he will not enjoy it."

Regina snorted. Not believing her for a second.

"There are ways to manage this." Rachel tried again. "Chemically and with therapy. If I had to guess, and I'm not a psychologist, I would say you're suffering from acute and manic depression. That, on top of your evident psychosis, makes you –in the vernacular- completely bat crap crazy…but it can be helped."

"Why?"

"Why not?" Rachel frowned at her. "I'm a doctor and –even if you don't think you deserve it- you _should_ be a patient. This will help you. Make things easier for you."

"I've never had anything easy."

"You ever stop to think that might be because you never accept help?"

"No." Regina raked her with a glance. "It's because people are disappointments and cannot be trusted. I will take nothing that you give me."

Rachel heaved a sigh and tried to gather her patience. She'd come across this kind of attitude a lot recently, especially from those of the Enchanted Forest that didn't trust this 'new fangled science' despite having lived with it for nearly three decades, so her willingness to truck with wilful stupidity was somewhat thin on the ground.

"It can help you heal. Help you be better."

"No, it will help me be someone else. Someone I am not." Regina spoke coldly. "Everything –absolutely everything- has been stripped from me. I would like, very much, to at least keep myself."

"You'll still be you, Regina." Rachel tried not to get frustrated. "It will help you manage the pain."

"By altering my mind?" At Rachel's look, the one that meant she was trying to spin that a different way, Regina continued. "By dulling my senses and fogging my memories? No, absolutely not, I have far too many enemies and far too much magic to control to take the chance. I am accustomed to pain, it seems so shocking to you because you don't know how to deal with it."

"Neither do you judging by how we're having this conversation at all."

Regina's jaw clenched and her eyes narrowed but her voice was level when she next spoke.

"The answer is 'no', doctor. I will either get better myself or I won't. You will either be the doctor you took a vow to be and respect my wishes or you shall prove me right. The future is full of possibilities."

"You're a cast iron bitch. You know that, right?"

"It has been mentioned in passing."

Rachel, incredibly, laughed.

"I find myself liking you anyway."

Regina raised her eyebrows, clearly wondering if she wasn't the only one with mental health issues.

"We all have our faults."

"Hmm, and yours –physically at least- appear to be on the mend. Unless you'd like the hair wrap special again?"

"Kindly keep your freakish locks to yourself." Regina made a show of drawing back and half lifting her hands as if to ward the other woman off.

"Alright, will you submit to a Tylenol…or ten?"

"Surely a doctor is not recommending I exceed the daily dosage?" Regina leaned heavily back against the wall, not willing to admit she couldn't hold herself up under her own power anymore.

She knew that Rachel wasn't entirely fooled. She saw far too much with that medical eye of hers. There was a time, probably about three weeks ago, that Regina would have disposed of her for such an insight but now the thought just seemed so…pointless.

"Everybody knows those are more guidelines." Rachel waved it away and rummaged in her medical kit.

Not the old leather case that Regina had been expecting, but a boxy stainless steel one with little drawers that folded out, sterile things in plastic baggies and uniform orange pill bottles with white tops. She extracted one of them, studied the label, and then handed it to Regina. When she hesitated, Rapunzel quirked a smile that was all the endearing princess and not so much the stubborn doctor.

"Trust me, I'm a doctor."

"Your medical certificate is a figment of my imagination." Regina grumbled but warily accepted the bottle anyway.

Studying the label she found it to be nothing more than a mixture of ibuprofen and codeine. Hefty painkillers, but nothing that would knock her out. Maybe loop her a little, but she was already a little loopy anyway.

"Two of those with every meal. Drink plenty of water. Don't take more than eight in a day and _call me_ if you notice any side effects."

"Third eyes, extra limbs, that sort of thing?"

"I was thinking more along the lines of hyperventilating and excruciating stomach cramps. That can happen."

"And I thought my magic was dangerous." Regina arched a brow and rattled the bottle.

"It's not magic, it's science."

"Magic is science."

Rachel pressed her lips together and snapped her med kit closed. She locked the clasps and then looked at Regina, realising only then that she was being needled.

"That is quite the dumbest thing I've ever heard, you just lowered the IQ of everyone in the room."

"Between you and me," Regina leaned forward and whispered, "I don't think some of them will notice."

Rachel smirked. She really didn't have a clue why she liked Regina. Others might have said it was all an act, she'd been a bitch for the last twenty eight years, but she was also a master manipulator. She wouldn't have managed to fool everyone if she wasn't incredibly good at putting on a face but…Rachel didn't think this was an act. She thought this might be the real Regina peeking through. A woman that might not be as bad as everyone thought she was.

Especially Regina.

"Get well, Regina."

"Oh yes, I must be fit enough to walk up the scaffold under my own steam." Regina sat back against the wall again.

"I don't think so." Rachel reached for her jacket and pulled it on. A denim one. She was in her civvies.

Regina realised only then that she must have come from home and not the hospital. She had come here –on her day off- to help Regina.

That would have floored her had she not been braced against the wall. She was left wondering, again, why the girl was so intent on helping her.

"Ruby has been advocating your release. Charming seems to think it's a bad idea, but even his nibs only wants to keep you here for your own protection." Rachel walked to the door of the cell and Eugene immediately approached.

He didn't look like a Eugene. He looked more like a…Rafe, a Seb, Jack maybe. Something monosyllabic that could be screamed by his damsel in distress with a suitably impressive belt of volume to it. He was as tall as Charming, with dark brown hair that flopped over his eyes. He wore a black tee shirt, stone washed jeans and a leather biker jacket. The clomping black boots roused Regina's suspicions that he was a regular of the Ugly Duckling and would probably have the accompanying filthy motorcycle.

"I'm really alright." Rachel cupped her husband's hand when he touched it to her cheek. Her smile was soft and Regina turned away, her fingers tightening around the bottle of pills in her hand.

"I would have thought you'd have had enough of being confined with evil witches." Eugene shot a look at Regina and turned back to Rapunzel when she jerked away from him.

"Don't call her that." She stepped back from the door and then waved at the bars. "Get the keys?"

"Rapunzel?" Eugene looked worried, gripping the bars, he looked at Regina again but found her staring at the wall pretending the conversation was beneath her notice.

"It's been a long day, Eugene, just…let's go home."

"Hey, Charming, gimme the keys!" Eugene turned and called over his shoulder.

Charming nodded, digging into his pocket and fishing out the keys. He started towards the cell when Ruby caught his arm, forcing him to turn back.

"What?"

Ruby didn't say anything, just raised her eyebrows and jerked her head towards the cell. Charming heaved a sigh and grumbled something under his breath.

Regina tensed when he unlocked the cell door. The urge to bolt out of it was incredible but she muscled it down. Even if she managed to get past Charming, Ruby would certainly catch her and there was no way she was centred or strong enough to risk teleporting away. The state she was in, she was far more likely to end up half in a wall somewhere.

Charming's eyes slid towards her, she saw his shoulders tensed, but he frowned and relaxed warily when she just looked back at him.

Eugene all but hauled Rapunzel out of the cell and engulfed her in his arms in a bone creaking hug. She slid her arm around his waist to give him a brief squeeze in return and he only drew back far enough to loop his arm around her shoulders.

"You scared the hell out of me." He pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"I was a bit startled myself." Rachel smiled and then turned to Charming.

"She shouldn't be left alone. Million Dollar Baby over there knocked the hell out of her." Rachel waved her medical case at Ruby who had the grace to look surprisingly sheepish for a wolf.

"Thanks for coming round, Doctor." Charming nodded to her and Rachel smiled back.

"Yeah, just try not to need it any time soon." She directed the last at Regina who held up her pill bottle and rattled it in farewell, a lopsided smile on her face.

Okay, so she didn't _completely_ hate Rapunzel.

Regina watched the doctor and her husband leave and switched her attention back to Charming when he continued to loiter in the doorway.

"You coming or what?"

Regina resisted the strong urge to examine the cell for whoever it was he might be talking to.

"To go where?" She said instead. _Never let yourself be taken to the second location._ The words pounded in Regina's head. _Because the second location is usually the murder room._

"The guest house. You have been remanded into Ruby's custody." Charming continued to hold the door wide.

Regina blinked languidly at him.

"Well?"

"You're letting me go?" She cautiously rose to her feet, continuing to her full height when she didn't immediately topple over. Dizziness assailed her but she battered it back and kept her feet.

"No-o, you're on bail. Kind of." Charming shrugged. "Ruby vouched for you."

Regina padded over to the door and narrowed her eyes. She leaned over a little to look around Charming to see Ruby. Who waved at her.

Regina frowned and –lifting her hand- waggled her fingers in return with an expression of such bemusement that Ruby grinned at her.

"You're letting me go?" Regina looked to Charming again. He heaved an exasperated sigh.

"Listen, this isn't my idea, I don't care where you stay, but I know you can't be alone and you need someone to watch your back. You stirred up a lot of people with your little escapade in the diner. We've not quite reached lynching stage, but your reminded everyone why they should be hella scared of you. Ruby's one of the few who can actually throw down with that many people and not get herself killed in the process. She's also the only one willing to do it." Charming sucked in a breath and tried to stymy his temper. This entire day had been made needlessly stressful by Regina regressing.

Still, she hadn't broken her promise to Henry and –despite being locked up- had only used her magic to defend herself when she had thought she was being attacked.

"I don't need a minder."

"I have a whole town of people who would disagree with you." Charming spoke wryly and folded his arms over his chest. He continued in a softer tone. "Henry heard about what happened. He wants to see you. Do you want him to see you in a cell?"

"He wants to see me?" Regina's voice was a mix of hope and shame. "Even after…?"

"He loves you, Regina." Charming spoke as if explaining to a child. Oddly hoping to rile her. Her temper he was familiar with. Her cold cruelty and contempt. He was used to that, he could handle that.

Now she looked vulnerable and sad and –curse that chivalry gland of his- but it always acted up around small women that needed help. Regina would balk at the idea of being in any kind of distress, least of all one that required a white charger to be rescued from, but Charming was beginning to wrestle with the strong urge to comfort her and it was pissing him off.

"So it's from one kennel to another?" Regina, sensing Charming's distraction, slipped out of the cell like she thought he was just waiting for her to be in the doorway so he could slam it on her.

"I put down fresh newspapers and everything." Ruby smirked at her and held out Regina's shoes.

"I…" Regina seemed to sag a little and rubbed at her temple. "Thank you." She ignored the way Ruby and Charming stared at her like she had grown another head.

"For what?"

"For…everything." Regina decided after a moment. "You could have let me kill Whale, you could have let the town take its justice and you could have left one of my heels in the gutter." Regina picked a wet leave off the toe of one of her shoes. It looked scuffed, like it had been dropped on the street. "You didn't do any of those things, you helped me so; thank you."

"You are very much welcome." Ruby laced her fingers together and looked her up and down. "So, _roomie_, you wanna get some takeout before we go back to my place and braid each other's hair?"

"Don't push it, Fido." Regina grumbled and tried to lean surreptitiously on the desk beside her. Charming shot her a look but she pretended to study the damage to her shoe.

"It's gonna be so much fun!" Ruby mocked a gush. "We can watch movies and have pillow fights and…"

"The only fight we'll be having is if I give in to the temptation to smother you." Regina growled. She should have stayed in the cell.

"Better than you have tried, shortie." Ruby looked pointedly down at her.

Regina tugged on her shoes with a scowl.

"Come on, Regina," Charming tried in a gentler tone, "we're just trying to keep everyone safe and that includes you."

"Why?"

Charming shrugged.

"You're trying to be better." Ruby said more definitively. "We're trying to help."

"None of that answers why." Regina pointed out. Even if it was selfishness on their part, she wanted to understand. She couldn't predict people who didn't have motives she understood.

"Because that's what we do!" Ruby threw up her hands.

"Not for me." Regina grimaced when she went to put her pill bottle in her pocket and found it had been ripped away. "People don't help me."

"Maybe they would if you didn't bitch about it." Ruby folded her arms over her chest and glared at Regina. She seemed to wrestle with herself for a moment and then continued in a mulish tone. Like she didn't want to say anything but felt she had to. "You hurt. I get it. I've been there too. I had friends to help dig me out of the deep dark hole and…I thought maybe you'd like one or two to help you."

Regina…thought she understood that. Ruby had rationalised sympathising with her and so she wanted to soothe her own conscience by helping Regina. Alright. That was fine. The idiocy of being 'good'. She could work with that.

The silence was awkward for a moment and then Regina nodded.

"Alright, I'll let you help me."

Ruby snorted a laugh and turned to Charming.

"I like how we still need her permission for absolutely everything."

"I…" Regina opened her mouth to clothesline Ruby with a waspish remark or six but clipped her teeth shut on it instead. "I'm sorry. Old habits."

Ruby's eyebrows raised and she nodded after a moment.

"You'll stay with me. Just for the next day or so. Let things cool down and make sure your brain doesn't explode or something."

"Lovely." Regina lifted a hand and rubbed at her jaw. "I shall endeavour not to inconvenience you by dying just yet."

"Glad to hear it." Ruby looked over at Charming and then rested a hand on his arm. "Thanks, James, we won't let you down."

We?

Regina eyed the back of Ruby's head when she turned away and, with a pointed look from Charming, Regina followed after her. Since when was she part of a 'we'? Even with Henry, it had been a LONG time since they'd been a 'we'.

It felt…nice.

Regina scowled. She didn't want to owe these people anything but…she had promised Henry that she'd try to be good. She supposed, well, she supposed Red wasn't Snow. Neither was Charming. Putting up with them shouldn't be too horrendous so long as they didn't get too touchy feely or she might start getting ouchie bleedy.

Comforted with that suitably malicious thought, Regina followed Ruby out of the Sheriff's Station. It had been a long day, but she had the feeling it was about to be an even longer night.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 – Favours**

"What do you want for dinner then?" Ruby looked back at her as they crossed the street towards the guest house.

"You're actually going to feed me?" Regina had assumed that was a show for…well, she didn't know who.

"Oh, you're paying." Ruby assured her. "You gotta eat though."

"I know." Regina followed Ruby cautiously around the side of the diner towards the guest house. She trod carefully, eyes darting warily, searching for any suspicious shadows.

"There's nobody around." Ruby was watching her. Noting Regina's paranoia.

Then again, was it paranoia if they really were after her?

"There are ways even to sneak up on a werewolf, Miss Lucas." Regina informed her coolly, her eyes never stopping their constant surveillance of her surroundings. "Your heightened senses actually make you a lot more vulnerable to certain tactics. Mace, for example."

Ruby wrinkled her nose in sympathy at the very thought.

"That would not be fun." Ruby held the door open for Regina, who scooted through it in that darting way that told Ruby she expected to be guillotined in it any second.

Ruby wanted to roll her eyes, but she knew you didn't get _that_ paranoid without damn good reason or a hefty neurosis. Regina probably had buckets of both.

"So, oh all-knowing one," Ruby beckoned Regina deeper into the guest house and upstairs to where she and Granny lived, "what else do you know about getting punched in the head?"

"That it hurts."

Ruby sniggered a little and then sobered.

"You didn't give me much choice." She glanced back at Regina. "You know I'm going to have to wake you up every hour to make sure you're not losing what's left of your marbles, right?"

"I am aware." Regina glanced about the house.

She liked it. It was a home, not just a building where Ruby and Granny stayed. It wasn't immaculately clean and elegant like the mansion, but there was a well rumpled lived in look to everything. There were no new pieces of furniture, everything was worn, but it had been well looked after. There were lots of cushions on the couches, pictures on the walls, and the place smelled of cookies and alpine.

"I know it's not the Ritz but…"

"It's perfect." Regina surprised herself with the desire for Ruby not to feel judged by her. Usually she happily judged everyone left, right and centre, but Ruby had granted herself an amnesty, at least for a time. "It fits. You and Granny, I mean."

Regina looked away from the way Ruby was staring at her.

"Well…thanks. I guess. Granny would be…well, actually Granny's going to be pretty pissed you're here." Ruby folded her arms over her chest and bit her lip. "I didn't think of that."

"I can go."

"No." Ruby surprised herself with how forceful that had been. "I mean, home is the first place anyone will look for you. No one will expect you to stay here. I'm not leaving you alone until you at least have a chance of making a run for it."

So she hadn't missed the way Regina was leaning on things when she thought the werewolf wasn't looking.

"Granny will understand when I explain." Ruby nodded to herself. "Probably."

Regina pushed off the banister of the landing and followed Ruby when she disappeared through a doorway into what must be the living room. There were several bookcases filled with worn hardbacks, rugs in a collage over the floor, yet more framed photographs on the wall and it seemed very…cosy.

"Sit down before you fall down." Ruby told her before disappearing into the adjoining room that had to be the kitchen. Regina listened to the sound of a running tap and accepted the glass of water when Ruby returned with it. "Two pills, down the hatch." Ruby took the bottle and shook the dose out, standing over her until Regina drank them down.

She puckishly stuck out her tongue and lifted it to show she hadn't cheeked them and Ruby smirked.

"Drink all that water, I'm going to find you something that might fit."

Ruby disappeared again and Regina was left on the couch, wondering how she had come to be there. She was exhausted. She'd been pretty low to start with and it hadn't exactly been a day of relaxation. She wanted nothing more than to curl up and try and sleep it off, but she knew that wasn't going to happen. She hadn't been lying when she'd said she knew what she had to do after being knocked unconscious.

It certainly wasn't the first time it had happened.

"Hey, I left you some stuff in the bathroom." Ruby reappeared. "Not exactly Prada, but you'll look less like an extra from a bad zombie movie."

"Thank you." Regina made to stand and her eyes widened when the nausea hit her like a truck. Her legs folded and she sank back down onto the couch, paling considerably and clapping her hand over her mouth.

"You okay?" Ruby was at her side in an instant and Regina nodded hurriedly.

She folded forward, putting her head between her knees and focussed on breathing in and out.

Ruby reached out to touch Regina, to sweep her hair back so she could see the other woman's face and she yelped when magic snapped at her with a crackle of burning energy.

"Watch yourself!" Regina lifted her head, looking grey, and saw Ruby sucking on her fingers. "I didn't mean to."

"It's alright." Ruby examined her hand. No damage done. It had hurt like a bitch but she did believe Regina when she'd said it hadn't been on purpose.

The woman looked like hell, Ruby knew she tended to get very snappy when she was ill too. Magic must be the same as a fluey wolf. Ready to bite off the hand that isn't wary.

"No harm done." Ruby held out her hand to show the skin wasn't blistered in the least. Then she turned it palm up and waited.

Regina looked at it and then up to Ruby's face, then back to her hand. Ruby's patience was given plenty of exercise in the time it took for Regina to decide she could trust Ruby with the monumental task of helping her to her feet. Finally, when she took her hand and let herself be helped up, she was a little less grey and even managed a smile with the thank you.

Regina managed to make it to the bathroom without being carried there and winced when the light went on and nearly blinded her bouncing off the white tiles. She spotted the clothes folded on top of the hamper, noticed the shower was already running and clean fluffy towels were folded over the radiator.

Catching sight of herself in the steaming mirror, Regina could see why.

Rough, didn't quite cover it, she looked like she'd been in a car wreck.

She reeked of surgical spirits, so she knew that Rapunzel must have wiped most of her makeup off, including the stuff covering her bruises on her neck. Which had disappeared due to Rapunzel's magical hair. Her eye was only a little swollen, the bruising barely noticeable though the white of that eye was almost completely red due to the burst blood vessels. The opposite cheek had another faint bruise, this one surrounding the pale scarring of a deep cut. The scratches on her neck and throat stood out newly healed pink against her skin and –when Regina removed her clothes and turned to examine the ache in her back- she found huge bruises almost completely covering the skin there. Those were darker than the ones on her face. Either the magic hadn't had time to get to them before Regina had thrown it off or Whale had hit her more powerfully there.

Regina barely remembered what Whale had done to her to give her such wounds, it all got a bit hazy after he had said he had done her a favour.

Even then, anger roiled in her, but the nausea beat it to the punch and did a lot to help batter it down.

A favour.

A _favour?_

What the hell did he know?

Regina stepped into the shower, hissing at the hot water splashing against her multitude of wounds. She just stood there, absorbing the heat for a while, then torturously moved to clean the blood and medical stink from her. The shampoo smelled of strawberries and vanilla and the soap of sandalwood.

A favour.

Regina huffed something like a laugh at the very thought. Yes, he had brought Daniel back, but he had brought him back to what?

Pain, suffering, blood, madness and –since SHE had managed to stave that off- now he was alive and well to see that the woman he had loved was gone and the creature that remained was a sad, damned thing wearing her skin.

Regina tilted forward and rested her head against the cool tiles, enjoying the soothing smooth feeling.

She felt the magic roiling in her alongside her tumbling emotions. She was getting less stable. It was crackling through her skin now, making her more dangerous to be around than usual.

She hadn't been lying when she'd said the price for breaking the Old Laws was steep. She hadn't said that she'd been the one to pay it, either.

A favour.

Regina turned to lean her back against the cold tiles as well. She wondered if that was how the rest of the town would view it.

A favour.

Did bringing about the death of the Evil Queen technically constitute as a favour?

Regina shut off the shower and dismissed the thoughts as pointless.

It wasn't like she'd be around to find out.

_**Next Morning**_

Regina groaned when an insistent knocking prodded her awake. She lifted her head, wincing against the light streaming through a chink in the curtains, and looked blearily about herself. It was a moment of muzzy confusion before she realised where she was.

Ruby's house, on the couch.

They had stayed up all night together, watching what seemed to be every single werewolf movie that had ever been made (something that Regina was sure was Ruby's punishment for the curse). It had been surprisingly easy to share Ruby's company.

She had eaten a ridiculous amount of food, needled Regina into forcing down a fair sized portion herself and then turned her attention to throwing popcorn at the television whenever they got something wrong, laughing at some of the terrible special effects and nudging Regina every so often to make sure she hadn't fallen asleep with her brain bleeding out of her ears.

It had gotten interesting when Granny had come home from closing the diner to find Regina curled up on her couch drowning in the hand knitted afghan that was usually draped over the end of Ruby's bed.

Ruby had hurled herself out of the living room, hustling Granny out there with her and slamming the door so Regina wouldn't hear most of the exchange of heated words on the other side. Regina had made it easy on them, turning up the volume of the television to give them a little more privacy.

Ruby had finally come back in, looking a little harassed and Granny had stood in the door a long moment, studying Regina until even the queen began to feel uncomfortable.

She restricted herself to one threat of staking Regina out for the crows if she betrayed her granddaughter's trust before announcing she was going to bed.

Ruby had known better than to apologise for Granny's actions and had thrown herself into turning on another movie instead.

Regina winced when she heard the knocking again and she sat up, stretching carefully. She could hear the hiss of water, Ruby must have gone to take a shower. Glancing at the clock, Regina was surprised to see that it was well after one. Ruby had kept her up all night and must have decided to let her sleep the last time she had dozed off.

The knocking again.

Regina grumbled her way to her feet and decided she didn't want to know how she looked, padding out of the living room instead. She smoothed her hands through her hair and headed for the door. She hesitated when she reached the landing downstairs.

Should she answer?

Nobody was supposed to know she was there. If she answered the door, she would probably give the game away.

Still, people were going to find out eventually and she had no desire to be cooped up in the wolf's den for longer than she had to. If someone found out she was there then she'd have the excuse to escape to somewhere more to her liking.

Regina, looking down, sighing when she saw she was in Ruby's grey tank top and a pair of red sweatpants that were too long for her. She'd been given a ridiculously oversized sweater as well but must have taken it off at some point because she was too hot.

Another insistent knock told her that she didn't have time to go and change.

Unlocking the door with the key in the lock, Regina opened it and smiled when a familiar voice sounded.

"Hi, mom!"

"Henry." Regina grinned down at him, though it was stifled a little by the phantom pain of a split lip.

It vanished completely when Regina glanced up at the woman standing behind Henry. Regina stiffened and her hand shot up, when the Blue Faerie's hand disappeared into that ridiculous cloak she wore, but she hesitated when she remembered Henry stood between them.

Clever bitch.

Regina threw herself backwards, losing her footing and forced to tumble over her own shoulder and rise to a crouch. Her eyes blazed with magic, summoned by instinct and she choked it down with an effort when Blue simply stood there, watching her. Her hand remained on whatever was under her cloak though.

"Mom? You okay?" Henry cautiously entered the guest house but Regina wouldn't look at him, she was focussed entirely on Blue.

"What do you want?" Regina rose cautiously to her feet, reaching out blindly and wrapping her fingers around a lamp. She lifted it from the hallway table, shaking the shade from it and gripping it in both hands. It was solid wood, it would crack Blue's skull like an egg if she got close enough.

No magic required.

"Did Charming send you? Make you bring Henry so I wouldn't use magic?"

"No!" It was Henry that answered but Regina's eyes never left Blue even then. "I went to the Blue Faerie so she could come here and heal you. She has some faerie dust now. I convinced her to use it to help you."

He approached Regina but her only response was to reach out and grip him by his hoodie, deliberately tugging him out of her path towards Blue.

"Go now and it ends here." She warned the faerie.

"I'm here to help."

"We both know my history with faerie dust is not a good one."

"I promised Henry I would help."

"I can do without your particular brand of assistance."

Blue stiffened, her lips pressed together in a white line. Regina narrowed her eyes.

What the hell was that?

What had she said to get that reaction? There was anger, yes, but fear too. A stark bolt of fear that had gone through Blue. Not because of Regina, she had to sense the Queen was no threat to her but because…she thought Regina knew something.

It was a wild leap, Regina knew, but the paranoia wouldn't let her think of anything else. Something she had said, the way she had said it, had lit a fire under Blue's ass about 'helping' Regina.

Regina had the very uncomfortable feeling that her chances of living to see lunch were dwindling into the single digits.

"Mom, she's not going to hurt you."

"You don't know that." Regina very nearly snapped at him. She was scared. Blue had the full advantage. She had faerie dust, her wand, Henry to cripple Regina and that was before Regina even started to factor in her own weakened state and fluctuating magic.

This was not a fight that would go well for her. She had to bluff it out.

"Yes I do!" Henry tugged at Regina's arm but she shrugged him away. "She's a good guy."

Regina huffed a laugh.

"Of course she is." Her voice was grim. "I mean it, Blue, leave now. Don't make me hurt you."

"I am just here to help." Blue spoke gently, soothingly, but Regina knew a snake when she saw one.

That cold calculation in her eyes, justifying what she was about to do. For the greater good, she would tell herself. Everyone would be better off without Regina, that would be the rationale. She'd kill Regina after provoking her into attacking first. Self-defence, even Henry would believe her. With the Saviour's son as corroborating witness, who would doubt her?

So…Regina couldn't act first and –if she didn't- Blue could ensnare her with her magic and make her dance like a gods damned puppet.

Regina couldn't see a way out of this.

"You know your magic will do me far more harm than good." Regina was stalling, trying to think of an escape. Could she run? Was she strong enough?

She knew her days were numbered, but she'd be damned if she was going to let _Blue,_ of all people, be her executioner. She'd rather go out on her own terms. With Henry perhaps believing she wasn't a complete monster when she did.

"It will be a simple healing spell, Regina. Help those cuts and bruises fade, make you feel stronger."

"No."

"Regina…"

"NO." Regina didn't yell but her voice filled the room.

"Blue, maybe you should go." Henry looked over at Blue. "If my mom doesn't want help…"

"Look at her, Henry, she needs it. Don't you want her to feel better?"

"Don't talk to him!" Regina took a step forward, standing between Henry and Blue, glancing down at him to make sure she completely shielded him and –in that moment of distraction- Blue's hand under her blue cloak withdrew to reveal her wand.

She raised it, Regina's eyes going wide when she saw it, her body tensing, preparing to step forward and swing. Wildly hoping to break the wand before Blue could use it to control her- and found she didn't have to.

Blue jerked back with a yelp when the crossbow bolt juddered into the doorframe a scant inch from her ear. Her cheek singed with the heat of its passing.

"What goes here?"

Regina whirled, raising the stupid lamp and faltering when she saw Granny on the landing above them. She had thought it was Ruby in the shower.

Granny stood, in fluffy slippers, a pink quilted dressing gown and with curlers in her hair, looking down at the scene in her lobby. She held her crossbow in one hand and calmly reloaded it without looking. She was glaring daggers at Blue instead.

"I was defending myself." Blue hadn't lowered her wand. "I came here to help and she was going to attack me."

"I heard her ask you to leave." Granny weighed the crossbow in her hand, not bringing it to bear, but it was still pointed at Blue. "Twice."

"I was asked here by Henry." Blue spoke tightly. "To heal her."

"She said no." Granny spoke to Regina. "Were you going to attack her?"

"Yes." Regina let the lamp fall to her side, felt her shoulders slump. Trapped. The damn faerie had backed her into a corner anyway. This would be her last strike. Charming would certainly lock her away on the word of Granny.

"Why?"

Regina frowned up at Granny.

"I asked you a question."

"Faerie dust could kill me." Regina didn't see the point in lying.

Henry gasped.

"Did you know that?" Granny turned her attention to Blue.

"Of course not, I would never…"

"Liar." The word rumbled from Granny in a low snarl and Blue clapped her mouth shut. "I can smell it."

"What you can smell is nerves." Blue recovered herself. "I thought she was going to try and kill me."

"Faerie," Granny drawled, "if she wanted to, she'd have pinned you to the wall like the butterfly you are. Get out."

"You're going to believe her over me?" Blue pointed with her wand at Regina and changed her mind about it when she found herself looking at Granny over the length of her crossbow. She hadn't even seen the old woman raise it. "The Evil Queen, her word carries more weight than mine?"

"It always has." Granny was snarling again. "People _respected_ her."

"I did nothing wrong and she's dangerous."

"What she _is_," Granny's voice rang with power, "is under the protection of the House of Lucas. Wolves guard her, Blue Faerie. Within the ranges of the Lucas Wolves; Regina Mills, Dark Queen, Captain of the Blackguard and scourge of the Enchanted Forest is granted amnesty from you and yours."

Both Regina and Blue's eyes widened at those words and they both stared up at Granny, outright gaping.

"Widow Lucas, do not do this on my behalf!" Regina stepped toward her.

"Swear to it." Granny ignored Regina and spoke to Blue instead. "Acknowledge the declaration."

Blue's chest heaved, her jaw clenched, anger crackled from her. She narrowed her eyes at the old woman who was actually centuries younger than her own age.

"Blue Faerie." Granny gritted, the crossbow never wavering. "Swear to it."

Blue looked like she was at war with herself. For long moments, it looked like she might do something terrible. Something they would all regret and then she huffed out a low hiss of air.

"She recants!" Regina stepped into the path of the crossbow, ignoring the danger and looked desperately up at Granny. "Don't do this. Not for me. I am not worth this."

Granny shifted the aim of her crossbow, narrowing her eyes as she calculated the curvature of an urn and the resulting detour her crossbow bolt would take if she hit it just right. Straight between Blue's eyes, if she was not mistaken.

"I do not recant."

"Yes you do!" Regina resisted the very strong urge to throw something. "I'm a psychopath. I'll let you down and don't think she won't hesitate to turn you both into rugs at the first opportunity. You don't _cross_ the Blue Faerie!"

"Then I suppose you had better be on your best behaviour." Granny spoke mildly. "Swear to it, Blue Faerie. Thrice I have spoken your name and thrice I compel you. Do you deny it?"

"I hear you, Widow Lucas. So it is sworn. Me and mine shall not touch you and yours…unless provoked."

The magic of those simple words lashed out and Blue was bodily thrown out of the front door with a grunt. Even she was surprised at the force of it. The house was a _home_ with one hell of a threshold. Blue would never be able to enter it again. The front door slammed behind her with a cacophonous bang and Regina whirled back to look up at Granny.

"What have you DONE?!"

"What I've been looking to do for years." Granny finally lowered her crossbow and started down the stairs towards her guests. "Good afternoon, Henry."

"Good afternoon, Granny." Henry murmured, looking at the snapping crackle of red and green magic racing around the door in its frame. "What just happened?"

"Missus Lucas just declared war on the faeries!" Regina hissed.

"What?" Henry stared up at Granny.

"Somebody had to." Granny settled her crossbow on her hip.

"Over me?!" Regina threw her hands up. "You couldn't find some other linchpin that wouldn't get you killed within the week?!"

"Mom, what's going on? What are you talking about? Are you guys gonna fight?"

"Your mother is apparently now the Drama Queen rather than that of Evil." Granny smiled down at Henry though she didn't speak unkindly.

"Missus Lucas…"

"Call me Granny." Granny smiled. "We're close enough for that now I think."

Regina's jaw clenched so hard it clicked.

"I can't believe you did this." She huffed out after a long moment of trying not to grind her teeth into dust. "I am the least stable person in this town, consider what happened yesterday, another incident like that spun the right way and this house shall be dust, you and Ruby along with it!"

"Nonsense, Blue knows that would be her death warrant. She'll never move against the wolves."

"You don't know that. You don't know what she's really like!"

"Girl," Granny spoke forcefully and Regina's mouth clapped shut, "I know exactly what she's like. She lies more than you do, stinks of reptile and cold and she is _bad news._ Somebody has to put a leash on her and –until you're up to the task yourself- I've hobbled her."

"_What's_ going ON?!" Henry pleaded.

Regina planted her hands on her hips and her head fell back. She resisted the urge to groan. Finally she looked down at Henry.

"Granny just adopted me."

"Huh?"

"I am now part of Granny's family." Regina waved ungratefully at the old woman. "She just told Mother Inferior there that –if she moves to hurt me- Granny and Ruby will eat her."

"Stitch that," Granny snorted, "I'll put her in the lasagne. That way everyone can have some."

"_Unfortunately_," Regina continued through gritted teeth, "that now means that Granny is responsible for my actions. If I were to –say- choke someone in the middle of a diner, then Granny would be answerable for it."

"But you're good now." Henry looked up at her, his voice turning small. "Right?"

"Not nearly good enough." Regina couldn't look at him. "Yesterday I didn't even hesitate I just…it is that easy, Henry. My grip on right and wrong is that easily lost."

"But…but this is great!"

Regina whipped her head around to look down at him.

"Do even _hear _me sometimes?"

"No, this is really a good thing!" Henry hurried to reassure her. He hated it when she was hurting. Hated it as much as she hated to see him hurt. "Family's what you make it, right? Because you made me your family, but Emma and Snow and Charming, I made them my family too and now Granny has made you her family." Henry looked down at his shoes suddenly and scuffed his toes on the floor. "So…now you won't be alone anymore and, I think, that means you won't be sad and angry and…hurt people so much."

Regina blinked down at her son and was amazed.

Amazed that he could still think good of her when she had nearly killed a man not even twenty four hours ago. Had calmly and methodically tried to choke the life out of him because he had refused to do as she said.

Well, she knew that wasn't the case, there was more to it than that, but Henry didn't know that.

Regina sank down onto her heels so she was closer to Henry's eye level and tentatively reached out to take his hand in hers. She smiled a little when his fingers tightened on her own instead of pulling away.

"Henry, I'm…I'm not right. In the head, in the heart, I'm messy all over. I'm _tired_ of hurting everyone. I don't want to do it anymore. Yesterday, with Whale, it would just be me that got into trouble for it, only me that would be hurt and –now- Granny could be hurt too because I'm too…broken to know any better." Regina studied his fingers because she couldn't look him in the eye. Perhaps she shouldn't be telling him all this but it wasn't like she'd have a lot of time to tell him about herself in the future.

Maybe, at least this way, he might understand her if not forgive her.

"How can I let anyone else trust me to do right when I can't even trust myself?"

"You promised me."

"And I _want_ to live up to that, Henry. Now. In this moment. Yesterday, in the diner, I didn't even remember I'd made that promise. I just wanted to hurt Whale."

"I know, but," Henry chose his words carefully, "remember when I was little and I ran out on the road? I ran right in front of Mister Andersson's truck and he slammed on the breaks, but you got hit anyway because you were pushing me out of the way."

Regina frowned.

"You remember that?"

"Yeah, you were cut and bleeding, but you picked me up and hugged me while you waited for the ambulance to come and –'cause I was crying- you scared away the ambulance guys and you let me put the plasters on even though I did them squint. I know you let the ambulance guys do them again anyway when you let Granny look after me for a few minutes." Henry spared a moment to smile up at Granny. He turned back to Regina and gently touched her face where he could still see the faint discolouration of bruising.

"I remember most that you got hurt because of me and then you let yourself stay hurt so that I would feel better and…that's when I realised what family meant. It means looking out for one another, even if it means you get a bit banged up while you're doing it."

Henry realised he was about to start crying like a baby, he hadn't allowed himself to think about his mom like that for a long time. It was easier to hate her. It was easier if he forgot all the good things she had done for him while he was hurting her. Every time he pushed her away, he focussed on the bad stuff she had done in the Enchanted Forest so he would be able to wreck her entire life by breaking the curse. He still thought he'd done the right thing, he loved his…not his _real_ family, because Regina was his real family too, but he loved all of them and he'd broken his mom's heart when he'd pushed her away.

"Mom!" Henry lunged forward and hugged Regina about the neck, knocking her over onto her ass. He followed her over and clutched tightly around her in a bone creaking hug. "Please don't give up, please try to get better, please let somebody help you."

Granny looked down at the heart wrenching scene of mother and son and told herself she was _not_ welling up over it. She had used Regina to her own ends, the queen knew that.

Granny had always had a bad feeling about Blue. The faerie had set up hackles Granny no longer had every time she had floated by in the Enchanted Forest spouting her wit and wisdom to anyone that would listen.

Granny knew better to ignore those instincts, because those same warning bells had rung in her ears nearly every time Mayor Mills herself had exchanged words with Granny and every time she had paid rent to Mister Gold. She knew now that they were the Evil Queen and the Dark One respectively and, if Blue gave her the same feeling, well, let's just say Granny was the proactive type.

Still, something chimed in her head when she looked down at Regina, hugging Henry tightly and looking down at the floor. Something very like…shame passed over her features.

Not shame for Whale, no. If Regina had been mad enough to kill the man with her bare hands Granny had no doubt she still felt fully justified in doing it. Even if she was sorry that it made Henry mad at her. It was shame for something else.

Granny inhaled a deep breath, resigned to the dawning realisation that Regina was a lot more complicated than she had ever given the crazed woman credit for, and stilled when a familiar scent caught her nose. She looked down at Regina and found the sorceress looking up at her.

Something passed between them and Granny tilted her head in a silent question.

Regina, ever so subtly, nodded her head.

Granny's gaze landed next on Henry and back to Regina.

Regina's eyes flashed and she shook her head just as minutely.

Granny received the message loud and clear. Henry had not been told, nor would he unless Granny wanted the wrath of the Blue Faerie and the Evil Queen both falling on her head.

Well, hell, it looked like Granny's plan to use Regina against Blue was going to fall through.

The Queen would be dead before she managed to implement it.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 – Crazed**

Daniel sat propped up in the hospital bed and tried not to go out of his damn mind.

He had been in this 'hospital' for days now and –despite his protestations that he was fine, that he needed to go, he had places to be and people to find- they all stubbornly refused to let him leave. He had tried, several times, to just get up and leave –lack of clothes be damned- but he had always been herded back into the room and –eventually- shackled to the bed.

It was a nice shackle, he supposed. Made of leather, padded on the inside, secured with steel buckles and a padlock. He only wore one, so he still had a free hand, but he was still shackled to the damn bed.

Daniel brooded to himself, his mind working furiously on an escape plan, yanking gently on the cuff in an absent motion.

_Clink, clink, clink._

She was out there, Regina. He had hurt her. He remembered his hand closing around her throat. He shuddered at the memory. He might have killed her had he not come back. Had she not brought him back.

_Clink, clink, clink._

That was another reason for the cuff. The girl, the doctor, had told him that it was just a precaution. She wanted to be absolutely sure than he wasn't going to revert. Which apparently meant jabbing him with a lot of needles, sticking wires to his head, taking measures of his blood and a veil of silence from everyone he came across.

Doctor Towers, Rachel, Rapunzel (he noticed that most people in this strange land seemed to have at least three names) clearly ran the place. There was another man –a Doctor Whale- that Daniel hadn't met and he was supposed to be in charge, but he noticed that everyone went to Doctor Towers and tended to avoid this mysterious Whale character.

_Clink, clink, clink._

Yes, Doctor Towers had been the one to ward off anyone talking to him. He didn't know why, but every single one of his questions about Regina had been stonewalled. If anyone spoke to him, it was Doctor Towers, and she would only answer his questions about where he was in the vaguest terms.

Magic had brought them to this land from the Enchanted Forest, it had been a curse. Everyone had been given new lives and new memories, they had forgotten who they were and the curse had recently been broken. That was the reason for the multiple names.

_Clink, clink, clink_.

The Evil Queen had cast the curse, bringing them all here. Towers had gotten nervous when she had mentioned the Evil Queen, then again, Daniel supposed the Queen might be named Evil for a reason and –considering the last witch Daniel had come across- he understood her nervousness completely.

He'd asked if it had been the curse that had brought him back and Towers had gotten even cagier. No, he'd been dead. Wholly and completely. It had been science that had brought him back but…magic that had saved him. Towers had looked uncomfortable with that.

_Clink, clink, CLINK._

Daniel felt his frustration rising. He knew nothing. At all. This place –with its white walls, white uniforms, white everything- left him cold and feeling alone. He wanted Regina, he wanted to see her, to hold her. She'd –somehow- brought him back from the dead and now something was keeping her from him.

Her mother? Was Cora still alive?

_Clink-clink-clink._

He felt something clench in his chest, felt his new heart thunder so hard it pounded in his ears like hooves on a road. No, don't let her be here. If Cora had been the one to become the Evil Queen, if her thirst for power had been successful, don't let her be here too.

Don't let her have ensnared Regina all this time.

_CLINK-CLINK-CLINK._

He had to get out of here. He had to see her. He didn't care that he was cuffed to the bed, he'd take it with him. So what if he didn't have clothes? He'd walk a hundred miles naked and barefoot over glass to find her. He had been torn from her once, ripped away from her with Cora tearing his heart from his chest.

Never again.

_CLINK-CLINK-SNA-AP!_

Daniel jolted in surprise when the chain securing the cuff to the bed broke and his arm suddenly flew free of its tether. He stared down at the sheered links, his brows raised, there must have been a weak link.

He grinned.

He was free.

Daniel gripped the sheets, prepared to fling them from his legs and make his escape, out the window if necessary, but the door swung open and his hand clapped down on the railing instead. Giving the impression that he was still shackled.

Daniel frowned when a vaguely familiar face appeared.

"Hi."

Daniel blinked at the boy, no more than ten or eleven, and tilted his head.

"Hi." He mimicked uncertainly.

"Are you feeling better?" The boy stepped into the room and closed the door behind him, but not completely, leaving it open a crack.

Daniel looked at the gap hungrily. The boy wouldn't be able to stop him. He could duck around him, fling open the door and be gone before anyone knew what he was about…but the lack of clothes might tip someone off.

That and…he had no idea about anything in this land. He knew the magic was strange and it was everywhere. Enchanted items that anyone could use by manipulating the little levers and buttons that covered the 'machines'. It made Daniel nervous, he didn't have a very good track record with magic after all, but he refused to let it stop him.

Still, running off half-cocked wasn't going to get him anywhere. He needed to know more. He needed to know if Cora was still alive, if she still held Regina in her thrall, where Regina was, who might be keeping her from him, what he might have to go up against to steal her free of it…it was an extensive list.

"Much." Daniel realised the boy was staring at him. He frowned at the lad, he looked so familiar. He studied him and stilled when he saw the faint handprint on the boy's neck.

It came back to him with a thump and he stiffened.

"I did that." Daniel pointed weakly at the marks.

"Uh, yeah, you weren't feeling very well."

"I could have killed you."

"You didn't." The boy tugged a stool closer to the bed and clambered up onto it. "I'm Henry. Henry Mills."

"Mills?" Daniel frowned.

"Yeah." Henry nodded and removed the pack on his back, opening it and struggling to lift a huge book from it. "Regina Mills is my mom."

Daniel froze in the act of helping the boy pull the book from the pack and stared.

Her son.

A husband. Of course. Regina had been set to be married to the king before Daniel had been killed. It was the reason he had been killed, so as to not stop the royal wedding. It must have happened, Regina must have been married off to Leopold and…and borne him a son.

Daniel felt sick.

He was aware of the beeping of the machines increasing. Felt his heart pounding in his ears.

"Hey, Mister Daniel, are you okay? You've turned a funny colour. You want a doctor?"

"No!" Daniel gentled his tone when Henry flinched and he forced himself to calm.

A husband. Leopold, Snow's father. Regina's husband.

Daniel could hear something deep inside him roaring. She really had been taken from him. Completely and utterly. Sold to a man nearly thrice her age. A man she hadn't loved. A man who wasn't _him_.

"Does…does your father know you're here?" Daniel heard his voice as if from very far away.

"Oh," Henry's voice quieted, "I don't have a dad. He…died when I was little."

"Leopold is dead?" Daniel knew he shouldn't, but he was relieved.

"Who's Leopold?" Henry frowned.

"The King." Daniel shifted in the bed, he had the feeling there was a lot going on in this conversation that he wasn't hearing. "Regina's husband. Your father."

"Oh, you mean Snow White's dad. No, he and mom aren't married anymore, not after she…well, that was before she adopted me anyway."

"You're adopted?" Daniel frowned.

"Uh-huh, I'm actually Snow White and Prince Charming's grandson." Henry beamed at him. "Did you know Snow White?"

"Snow White is barely older than you are." Daniel stalled a moment. "How long have I been gone?"

"Uhm, near as I can tell, about forty years."

Daniel blinked.

"That can't be right." He shook his head. "Regina hasn't aged…" But she had certainly changed.

Daniel had seen it, through the haze of rage and pain, he had seen it. different clothes, different hair, but more than that. She'd seemed older, a woman in maturity, not the girl he had fallen in love with anymore. Still beautiful, always so beautiful to him, but certainly older.

"Yeeaahh…that's because of the curse." Henry shifted on his chair. "That's what I came to talk to you about. I figured you'd want to know what had happened since you…"

"Died." Daniel told him flatly.

"Yeah. That."

"I've heard of the curse, cast by the Evil Queen."

"Oh," Henry looked surprised, "so you know."

"I'm not deaf." Daniel was still trying to wrap his head around all this. "Despite everyone trying to talk about me and not to me, I've managed to pick up bits and pieces."

"And you're…okay with it?"

"People ignoring me, coming back from the dead or finding myself in this strange land apparently forty years after my death but nobody seems to have aged?"

"Uh…I meant okay about my mom being the Evil Queen?"

"Snow's daughter is the Evil Queen?"

"No." Henry shook his head wildly. "My birth mom is the Saviour, she broke the curse the Evil Queen cast."

"You have two mothers and no father?"

"No." Henry heaved an exasperated sigh. He'd never had to explain this to someone who hadn't lived it. He realised then how complicated it all was. "Emma is my birth mom, Regina is my mom who raised me. Snow White is Emma's mom and…Regina is the Evil Queen."

Daniel frowned at him, shaking his head slowly.

"That can't be right."

"I thought you might say that." Henry heaved open The Storybook and flipped through the pages, finding a picture of the Evil Queen. The drawings were simple, but it was unmistakably her. He turned the book so Daniel could see.

Daniel leaned in closer and then shook his head again.

"You have to be mistaken, Regina's mother was an evil witch. Regina was terrified of and abhorred magic, she certainly wasn't evil and –if she raised you- you should keep a more civil tongue in your head when you speak of her."

Henry blinked.

"But…" Henry half lifted the book. "This is proof. She is…was…evil…" His voice trailed off under Daniel's glare.

"A book? Really?" He shifted higher against the pillows at his back, leaning closer to Henry. "You mean to tell me that you call the woman who raised you, presumably because the 'Saviour' couldn't or wouldn't, evil because of a BOOK?"

"The stories are true!" Henry tried to make him understand. "All of them."

"Truly?" Daniel tilted his head and held out his hand as if for Henry to prove him wrong. "Regina cannot be evil. Not after the life she lived under it. Not after looking it in the eye over the breakfast table every morning."

"What do you mean?"

"Her mother, boy. Cora Miller, the woman who tore my heart out and murdered me right in front of my fiancé, Regina Miller."

"You…you were gonna marry my mom?" Henry stared at Daniel, clutching his book tightly to his chest. "Her mom killed you?"

"In cold blood. With magic. That's why Regina can't be the Evil Queen. She'd never do what her mother did."

"Tearing out hearts…" Henry looked down at the book in his lap and opened it to another page. He turned it so Daniel could see. "She did that too."

Daniel looked at the illustration of the 'Evil Queen', who did bear an uncanny resemblance to his Regina, with her hand buried to the wrist in a man's chest.

Daniel shook his head.

"There's nothing to say that any of that is true."

"Look around you!" Henry waved his arm wildly. "We're in a whole 'nuther world from the Enchanted Forest! Brought here by a curse, a curse cast by my mom, the Evil Queen. You want proof? Ask anyone out there, they've all been hurt by her or know somebody who's been hurt by her. She's evil, a villain, the only one worse than her is the Dark One!"

"That's horseshit and I'm tired of being lied to." Daniel threw back the sheets and hurled himself from the bed.

"Hey!" Henry scrambled to follow him.

Daniel cut an imposing figure, even in just a hospital gown. People got out of his way in a hurry when he snapped aside the sliding door so hard a crack raced clean across the glass pane. He strode through the ward, looking for the exit, unheeding of the shouts going up from the healers.

"Wait, sir, you can't…!"

Daniel simply stepped around the older woman –Janice he thought she was called- and carried on. He was aware of the boy –Regina's apparent son- following closely behind him, calling his name as well.

The hospital was as big as a castle, but Daniel had determination on his side and figured, if people were trying to stop him, he was heading in the right direction.

He brightened when he saw the square of daylight beyond yet more glass doors and quickened his pace.

"And where do you think you're going?"

Daniel was forced to halt when Doctor Towers appeared in front of him from seemingly nowhere.

She was small, she barely reached his shoulder, but she gave off an aura of immovability that seemed to almost dare him to try her patience. That and she wasn't yelling at him or trying to force him back into that bed. Just calmly demanding to know why he was interrupting her day.

"Away." Daniel tried to step around her too but she effortlessly placed herself in his path.

"Where?"

"To find Regina."

"I don't think that's a good idea. I haven't finished running tests."

"I don't care." Daniel kept trying and failing to get around her. He was on the verge of bodily removing her from his path.

"You should. Do you really want to go to find Regina and collapse on her? Don't you think that might distress her a little bit?"

"You've been lying to me for days, why should I believe you?"

"Well, for a start, I'm fully clothed." She gave a pointed look to the papery garment that covered him. "Nearly naked people have very little say in our society today."

Rachel tried again when she saw her attempt at humour fell flat.

"I haven't lied to you."

"Nor have you told me the truth!" Daniel's arm whipped out, his finger pointed at Henry. "This boy tells me that Regina is the Evil Queen. I cannot fathom how that could be true how anyone else could have FAILED to mention that every time I asked for her. The only reason they'd have stayed silent is if someone ordered them to. You." Daniel loomed over her.

Rachel tilted her head up to keep his eyes locked with hers but otherwise didn't move.

"I didn't want to cause you unnecessary distress."

"Distress?!" Daniel snarled. "I've just been told by a boy who –within five minutes of meeting him gives all the impression of being a spoiled ungrateful brat- that my fiancé is supposed to be akin to the Dark One. That she cursed everyone in this town and I just cannot believe that the woman I knew, a woman who was kind and forgiving to a fault, could EVER do something like that."

"I'm not a brat." Henry defended himself weakly.

Rachel and Daniel just looked down at him as if that had been so stupid that he had lowered their IQ's by association just for voicing it. Then they summarily ignored him.

"This isn't how I wanted you to find out, I thought Regina would come back for you. I thought she'd explain it herself. Hers is not a story that any of us know the whole of. Speaking to you for two minutes, I've found out more about her than anyone else has in the last forty years." Rachel sighed and softened a little. "Which may be exactly why she's hiding from you."

Daniel frowned, he had now officially moved past Pissed-Beyond-All-Belief to Distressed-As-All-Hell.

"Regina's not…well." Rachel couldn't look at him when she said it. Couldn't watch as she shattered his image of Regina as she had been and replaced it with who she had crumbled into. "She is, however, well enough to know that everything she has done is wrong. She's trying, trying to come back from it but you are the only one who doesn't see her as the Evil Queen. You're the only one whose judgement could shatter her."

"I'm not going to judge her! I'm certainly not going to break her. I just want to know that she's alright."

"She says she's messy." Henry finally caught their attention again and he hugged The Storybook to his chest. "In the head and the heart and she's tired of hurting people…she's really, really, tired."

"All the more reason for me to go to her." Daniel waved a hand at Henry as if he'd just been validated.

"No, all the more reason for you to stay away. She's not ready to see you. She's not ready to face you with what she's done."

"I don't care about any of that!"

"She does!" Rachel worked to rein in her temper. "For the first time in a long time she actually cares about all the damage she's done. To herself and others. There's no way she can fathom anyone forgiving her if she can't even wrap her head around doing it for herself."

"So I have to abandon her?" Daniel waved at Henry. "Like he did?"

"I didn't abandon her! She made me think I was crazy! I had to break the curse!"

"And her along with it by the sound of things." Daniel didn't even fully turn to Henry as he spoke, didn't even give him his full attention.

"I'm not saying you can't see her." Rachel held up her hands between man and boy. "I'm saying that she needs time to get used to the idea of you being back. The last time she was happy was when she was with you and I don't think Regina has felt happy since then. It will be a hell of a shock to the system."

"So I have to wait? Forty years we've been parted, through death, curses and the rest and I have to wait?"

"Yes. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. Be better. Help me." Daniel wanted to chew the walls he was so frustrated. Regina was kind, gentle, beautiful. The love of his life and everybody talked about her with the same pity and revulsion usually reserved for lepers.

"I don't think there's anything…"

"Think again." Daniel all but growled. "Of all the people that have spoken of the Evil Queen within my hearing you are the only one who is not repulsed. At the very least, you do not despise her and you do not fear her."

"She doesn't know me, she doesn't like me, she's not going to open up to me."

"She doesn't have to open up to you, you just have to get her to listen. Get her to think on it. She'll do what's right. I know she will."

Rachel looked at him for a long and unblinking moment, measuring him.

"Alright, I'll make you a deal. You go back to bed, let me do a last battery of tests, and I'll go to Regina and speak on your behalf."

"What are the tests for?"

"I want to find out what the metal in your chest is, run an ultrasound on that heart of yours and have a physiotherapist look over you. Make sure there aren't any mobility issues that might flare up later. You have been frozen for about forty years."

"And you'll talk to Regina? Today?"

"Tomorrow. Tests first."

Daniel's jaw clenched.

"Promise me."

"I promise that I will speak to Regina Mills on your behalf tomorrow morning as per our agreement." Rachel raised her eyebrows. "Good enough?"

Daniel huffed out a sigh, looking over at the exit with an understandable longing on his face. Rachel was no stranger to True Love, she could only imagine how she would react to someone trying to get between her and Eugene had she been in Daniel and Regina's situation, but she knew it wouldn't be rationally.

She was incredibly surprised and a little sceptical that she had managed to get through to him.

"Alright."

"You'll go back to bed? Stay there?"

"For the next day." Daniel agreed and turned, heading back to his room.

It was only then that Rachel noticed the sheered links of the chain.

Damn, had he done that?

Daniel, ignorant of the doctor's musings, scowled his way back to his room and slammed the door shut behind him. He tunnelled his fingers through his hair and worked not to scream. He whirled when the door was pushed hesitantly open and froze when he found one very hurt looking little boy standing in the doorway. His precious book still clutched to his chest.

Daniel softened when he remembered how he had spoken to the boy. He was just a child and Daniel had scared him not once but twice now.

"I'm…sorry. For being cruel to you. You don't deserve it." Probably.

"That's…" Henry couldn't make himself say 'okay'. He'd never felt less okay in his life. Daniel had just said out loud all the stuff that usually only echoed within Henry's mind in the middle of the night. "Can I…can you tell me? About mom, I mean? Before she got…before you died."

Daniel looked down at him for a long moment. Eventually he dredged a smile from somewhere and waved to the stool Henry had sat on to begin with.

"I'll tell you why she's good and you tell me why you think she's evil. We'll see who's got the best stories." Daniel knew the stories in that book couldn't ALL be true, but he still wanted to know the rumours that would be flying around about Regina. About the kinds of things he'd have to steel himself.

"Are you sure?" Henry shifted from foot to foot in the doorway still.

"When it comes to Regina," Daniel smiled, "I'm always certain."

Henry looked up at him and –slowly- a huge grin spread over his face. He dumped The Storybook on top of his bag and then scrambled up onto the stool.

"Tell me about the first time you saw her."

Daniel moved back to his bed and hopped up onto it. Feeling like an idiot in the damn parchment dress. He'd never wished more for a pair of breeches. Daniel sighed and smiled, unable not to when he conjured the image of his first sight of Regina.

"The first time I saw her, she was flying." Daniel smiled with a softer smile. "She was on a horse, not an uncommon sight in the Enchanted Forest but, when Regina rode…" Daniel looked at Henry's rapt face and smirked. "Your mother, astride a horse, you'd believe they both could fly."

Henry propped his feet up on the side of the bed and hugged his arms about his knees.

He found himself hoping.

Hoping against hope that there really was more to his mom than the Evil Queen, that the face she had worn as his mom might not be the mask, it might really be her.

He hoped with everything he had that his mom was real and the Evil Queen was the fairy tale.


	6. Chapter 6

**Alright, since everyone has been super nice about this story, i've decided to post a few more chapters for you. This is planned and mostly written right up until Emma and Snow's return (sitting at chapter 32 right now so quite a ways for you guys to go). I am having a GREAT time writing Regina, she's just so damn scatty and crazy and terrified and vulnerable with the potential for being a powder keg of bad-assery if she was handled right (which i intend to do). **

**Thanks to EVEREYONE who reviewed, a little sad that i can't PM some of the anonymous guest types but their input is much appreciated anyway. I was mega nervous of posting this because i didn't know if it would be good enough but i just wanted it out there too much to keep it mouldering on my harddrive. **

**So...DustyKnight; who promoted me on Tumblr? All the Guests peeps, THANK YOU. Shkabane-Mai, i'm glad you're still following despite my disillusionment with House MD. Caro, why don't Argentinians have to write in school? Tis kind of an important skill and Moonlightchild87, wow, you like to review :D Also, as you can see in the note above, lots of chapters to go and the 'Blue Mosquito' well, we haven't seen the last of her. **

**Right, so this is a pretty slow burn and it comes off as a Regina-centric fic for quite some time and since you guys were so awesome, i decided to go for some Regina, some Daniel and some Regina/Daniel moments. Have your hankies on standby, because this story gets worse before it gets better. **

**Poor, 'Gina. **

**Read, review and enjoy :)**

**Chapter 6 – Tigers**

_**The Mills Mansion**_

Rachel looked up the garden path and bit her lip. Heaving a sigh, she braced herself and pushed open the garden gate, crossing the garden and hesitating on the front porch.

What the hell was she doing? Eugene would have a fit if he knew she'd come here by herself.

Rachel genuinely wasn't afraid of Regina but only in the same way she wasn't afraid of tigers. She knew if she didn't do anything to provoke the dangerous animal and it wasn't hungry then it wouldn't eat her. Probably. Still, there was academically not being afraid and –at the same time- being academically aware of how exactly Regina could reduce Rachel to a fine meat paste with little more than an errant thought.

If she was lucky.

Still, she hadn't gotten through medical school by…well, she hadn't gotten through medical school at all really. Rachel rolled her eyes at her own stalling and lifted a hand to knock sharply on the door before she could think better of it.

She remembered medical school, she grumbled mentally to herself. Vague and hazy memories, but she remembered. It had been rough. Hard and gruelling.

Rachel shoved her hands into her pockets of her deep purple coat and waited for the door to open. After a few more moments, she lifted her hand to knock again. She rocked on her heels and –when it became clear the door wasn't going to be answered- she heaved a sigh of part relief and part disappointment and turned to go.

Stalling one step down from the porch when something occurred to her.

Where else would Regina be?

It wasn't like she could be out for coffee with friends. She might be at the store or with Henry but…probably not.

Rachel bit her lip, screwed up her courage and tried the front door. She very nearly squeaked in alarm when it swung open soundlessly. Unlocked? Regina didn't seem the type, even in a small town, especially when the marauding mobs for her head hadn't been completely quelled. Not that a locked door would really prevent a lynch mob, Rachel rolled her eyes at herself. Honestly, she wasn't that naïve little princess anymore.

Rachel slipped quietly into the house and decided against announcing her presence, she could hear music and –whilst she doubted the ravening horde out for the queen's head would prefer the accompaniment of Tchaikovsky- why take the chance?

Rachel closed the door quietly and padded deeper into the house. The music was coming from the kitchen. She couldn't see anyone in there so she opened her mouth to call out and her eyes flew wide when she saw a pair of bare feet on the floor behind the island countertop.

"Regina!" Rachel dashed into the kitchen and around the island counter, rearing back with a yelp when the queen surged to her feet and rounded on Rachel, something dark in her hand.

Rachel's hand delved into her purse, levelling her own weapon as she fell back against the cabinets. Both women were breathing hard and seemed to realise the ludicrous circumstances of their situation simultaneously.

"Why do you have a frying pan in your purse?" Regina was the first to break the heavy silence.

"They're practical. Were you really going to kill me with a scrubbing brush instead of magic?"

"It's an ergonomically shaped wooden block that could just as easily crush your larynx as lobotomise you." Regina straightened from her battle crouch and dropped said scrubbing brush to her side. "Why use magic when I don't have to?"

"Okay, that's…creepy." Rachel lowered the frying pan and then stuffed it back into her bag. "Were you scrubbing the floors?"

"What was your first clue?" Regina stooped, dropping the brush back into the bucket and using a rag to mop up the suds on the tiles.

"I'm sorry it just seems so…normal."

"Apologies for ruining the mystique but I killed off all my indentured slaves because it's Tuesday." Regina straightened and dusted her hands off on her jeans.

Yeah, jeans. Rachel had never seen jeans on the woman before. Nor a tee shirt, least of all a white one that appeared to be a little grubby. She'd tied her hair back in a tail as well, her face was flushed from the effort of scrubbing the already sparkling floor and Rachel pressed her lips together when she realised that the queen was quite possibly cleaning because she didn't know what else to do with herself.

She'd been asked –forced- to step down as Mayor so Charming could take over so she'd effectively gone from the ruling power to the town pariah and –for the type of personality that Rachel had picked up Regina had- that was probably a worse punishment than death by urethral attack maggots.

"Why are you here?"

"To check up on you. Make sure you're recovering alright."

"I'm fine."

"Uh-huh." Rachel stepped forward. "Will you let me look?"

Regina gave her a stony glare for a long moment and then relaxed her posture and tilted her chin up. Letting Rachel know that –for now- it was safe to approach.

Rachel carefully examined Regina's face and neck. Glad to see the welts and bruises were almost entirely gone, only the faintest discolouration to be seen.

"Can I see your back?" Rachel remembered the horrific bruises and the cracked ribs Regina had received from the pounding of Whale's knees onto her back and shoulders.

"No."

Rachel got the message and took a step back before the queen helped her on her way with a well placed spell.

"I need to make sure they're healing properly. Back injuries are a serious thing."

"No."

"Regina…"

"_No,_ Doctor Towers." Regina said firmly. "I'll not give my back to even you."

Rachel sighed and realised that she'd been given a hell of a trust already. Since she hadn't been bodily thrown out of the house nor had she had her fingers amputated for touching the queen, Rachel supposed this must be the equivalent of trusted confidant to Regina.

"Most people call me Rapunzel." Rachel offered a smile, trying to play on that. She really was worried for Regina.

"Do you prefer that?"

Rachel blinked at the question. In all honesty –no- she preferred Doctor to Princess but most people had automatically slipped back into calling her by her original name. Rachel shrugged.

"It's not like I earned the title of doctor, is it?"

"You did at the hospital the other day and in the cells yesterday." Regina picked up the bucket and moved to clean up, emptying it down the sink and spending an inordinate amount of time rinsing it and mopping up afterward.

Rachel frowned. She was playing with fire. She knew she was. Regina didn't _like_ people. She was a psychopath, suffering an acute disassociation between positive and negative emotion as well as the difference between right and wrong. The best Rachel could hope for was to be tolerated and she had the distinct impression that bringing one of the people that Regina actually loved into the conversation was about to send the tide out of the shallow harbour that was Regina's patience.

"Daniel has been asking for you."

Regina stilled in the process of stowing the bucket under the sink and straightened. She leaned back against the counter and folded her arms over her chest.

"Why does this concern me?"

Rachel frowned.

"You're the closest thing to next of kin that he has and –apparently- you're the only one that knows him. No one else has recognised him or come looking for him. Charming hasn't been able to find out anything about him from Henry and his book…and he asks for you. Constantly. Every shift change, every new face he sees, every time I check on him, he's still asking for you."

"He doesn't know me." Regina's voice was flat.

"He seems to think he does." Rachel planted her hands on her hips and frowned, trying to figure it out.

"He is mistaken. He came back from the dead, it's not surprising that he would imprint upon the first person that he…"

"Bullshit." Rachel might not have been very good at spotting lies, the first eighteen years of her life evidence of that, but a blind man could have seen through that.

"If you're going to break into my home, the least you could do is keep a civil tongue in your head." Regina scowled at her.

"I didn't break anything. The door was unlocked." Rachel dismissed it. "Listen, I don't care who he is to you, that's between you and him, but the man is healthy. I have no reason to keep him in the hospital and I need the bed. He needs somewhere to go and I would rather it was with someone he knew."

"He doesn't know me." Regina added a glare for good measure. Rachel opened her mouth but was cut off before she could get another word in. "This conversation is over."

Rachel heaved a sigh knowing enough about evil witches to know when not to push it but she tried again anyway.

"Listen, I'm not here as some sort of cursed refugee, I'm here as a doctor. I want the best care for my patient. I think you want that too. I think we could meet halfway on this. No one will harm you if you visit the hospital, I've made it clear that it's neutral ground. I've even made arrangements for you to come by outside regular visiting hours so it lessens the chance of you meeting people that might take exception to your presence."

"Why?" Regina shrugged a shoulder. "Why go to all this effort? Why do you care?"

"He's in pain. Not physically but sometimes that can be worse." Rachel shrugged. "I want to help him and I think him talking to you would go a long way towards that. Besides, my view on good and evil is a little more fluid than everyone else's."

"Oh, so because I care about someone, I'm not evil, I'm just misunderstood?"

"So you do care about him?" Rachel tilted her head and realised her mistake immediately.

Regina's face hardened with a glare and she pushed away from her post by the counter, approaching Rachel with a malicious intent.

"You have outstayed your welcome." When Rachel didn't immediately scurry out of her house Regina seemed to go cold with rage. She spoke in vicious clipped words. "There aren't any towers in Storybrooke, Doctor, you had best go before I find a fitting replacement."

Rachel found her temper and shoved Regina back with both hands to her chest.

"Alright, I get it, you're evil. Big deal!" Rachel threw her arm wide. "You think that scares me? You think I care about that? I was _raised_ by 'evil' and I was –for the most part- HAPPY. Yeah, that's right, I had a good life. The woman that raised me was just scared and alone and didn't want to die. Yes, she was selfish and stealing me from my real parents was inexcusable but she was kind and good to ME and I killed her!" Rachel's chest heaved.

"She was the only mother I had ever known and she died because of me. She died and I had to listen to everyone vilify her and remember her only for stealing me. Not for the good things she did, not for holding me when I was scared, tending my wounds when I was hurt, teaching me to read and write or trekking for three days to get to the ocean just to get white shells for me to make paint just because it made me happy!"

Regina blinked at the younger woman. Surprised at the force of her words. She doubted Rachel meant to say any of it, but the flood gates had obviously opened and there was nothing the young doctor could do to stem the tide.

"Everyone else remembers the villain. The kidnapper. The witch. They _praised_ me for killing her. Yes, I was devastated when I found out she had lied to me, I wanted nothing more than to be wrong, but she was still more of a mother to me than the woman who gave birth to me and she's dead because of me!" Rachel's chest heaved and her shoulders slumped, she looked away from Regina and blinked rapidly, her eyes bright. "Shit." She whispered.

Regina stood awkwardly hoping intensely that the other woman wouldn't break down. To say she wasn't good at comforting people would be an understatement. She didn't know how to deal with her own pain, never mind anyone else's.

"You want to know why I don't hate you? Why I want you to have a chance with this man of yours?" Rachel didn't wait or even seem to need to wait for Regina's answer. "It's simple; I was GLAD to forget about the Enchanted Forest. My memories of Gothel in this land are happy ones. I remember living with her in a ranch in the middle of nowhere, of caring for her because she was always ill, she died here from a congenital heart defect, she's the reason I went on to become a doctor…at least, that's what I remember."

Rachel finally looked back at Regina and her jaw clenched.

"The curse wasn't a curse to me and that's…_horrible_."

"Been holding that in a while?" Regina finally asked, she had meant it to come out cold and condescending, hoping to drive the young woman away, but it was sort of rueful instead.

"Hah!" Rachel managed a laugh. "Only about thirty five years now I suppose. Not even Eugene knows…"

Silence descended between the two women again and Regina resisted the quite strong urge to fidget. The doctor wasn't afraid of her. Truly wasn't. Even Henry was afraid of what she might do to his fabulous new family but Rachel had gone toe to toe with her and hadn't even blinked. Regina had no idea how to deal with that.

"Eugene is your…husband?"

"Yeah. Well, not here, but back in the Enchanted Forest…" Rachel shrugged a shoulder and then shook herself. "Anyway, I didn't come here to…vent at you. I came for Daniel." Rachel nodded to herself. "Will you come and see him? Help him find his feet?"

"I would have thought –as a medical professional- that you would be more qualified than I for that." Regina tried to put up some walls between them again but her efforts seem to careen off of Rachel harmlessly.

"I don't take my work home with me." Rachel tilted her head. "He needs you, Regina. You helped him before. You saved his life, I saw what that cost you. Why not help him now?"

"I _can't_." Regina burst out suddenly and wrung her hands together. She forced herself to stop and spun away pacing a moment before rounding on Rachel again. "I can't. He doesn't know me."

"He knew you, didn't he? Before." Rachel frowned. "Before all…the pain."

Rachel resisted the strong urge to shudder at the memory of that pain. When Regina had sent it rocketing through her to break the connection. She'd remember it for the rest of her life.

"He doesn't know me." Regina hid in the words. She'd live in them if she had to.

"I see."

"I think you might." Regina admitted slowly and braced her hands on the counter top.

She stared down at the sink for a moment and twisted her mouth. She looked up at Rachel to find the girl watching her still. She shoved away from the counter and marched around it to find her purse. Digging inside, she lifted out a wedge of notes and handed them to Rachel.

"I cannot help him. I cannot know him but you…people expect kindness from doctors." Regina watched Rachel look at the money like it was foreign. "This will at least get him some clothes and a room at Granny's. I can give you more later."

"Regina," Rachel warily accepted the money like it might burn her, "people are already talking. The hospital is an ever churning rumour mill. The way you acted when you brought him in…people are beginning to suspect if not know that you care for Daniel."

"So long as it is suspicion, it can easily be dealt with. No one will act on something so tenuous. Not while Charming still has power." Regina nodded to herself like she was trying to comfort herself.

"There are others in this town, Regina. Others not so willing to toe Charming's line."

Regina lifted her head and something very stark and dangerous took up residence there for a moment. Her smile, when it flashed briefly, was the black eyed grin of a shark about to frenzy.

"Then you should make it known that Charming has the full backing of the Evil Queen. If anyone acts against him, or those associated with him, I shall tear this town apart bricky-by-brick and rain them down upon the offending party." Regina's smile somehow managed to show all of her teeth. "From orbit."

Rachel looked her in the eye, one of the few people willing to do so, and found the utter truth in those words. It would seem the Dark One wasn't the only one with the ability to see into the future.

"Right," Rachel gulped, "I'll drop that little titbit at the water cooler, shall I?"

"That would probably be best."

"I'll get Daniel the room. Some clothes too." Rachel nodded, backing towards the door and more than a little concerned when Regina prowled after her.

"Lovely." The Evil Queen, because that was who Rachel was suddenly with, smiled still. Approaching like a fox would a rabbit.

Rachel frowned. No. That wasn't what you did with predators. She stopped, squared her shoulders and spoke firmly and calmly.

"Regina."

Regina blinked and stopped. She shook herself and shivered all over for a second before looking back at Rachel. She was silent a long moment and then nodded once.

"Thank you."

"No problem. I'll see myself out." Rachel spun on her heel and walked to the front door, closing it quietly behind herself on the way out.

She made it all the way to her car before her legs gave out and she clutched the wheel while she hyperventilated.

She was _never_ doing that again!


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7 – Unsettled**

"Well, here we are." Rachel opened the door to the guest room and led Daniel inside. "It's not much but…"

"It's more than I had at home." Daniel looked around the room and set the bags he carried onto the bed. "A cot in the servant's quarters." He looked up and studied the ceiling. "The roof leaked."

"Oh." Rachel shifted uneasily. "Well…these are the lights," she toggled the switch on and off to show him, "there's a little fridge if you want to pick up some food later. I can take you to the store if you want and the bathroom is through there."

Daniel followed her directions as she pointed things out and he rolled his shoulders in his new clothes.

He'd never had new clothes before. Hand-me-down things, second hand, well repaired and well used. Like this inn. That part of it, at least, was familiar to him. Unlike near everything else in this town.

Rachel had spent the day with him, finally freeing him from the hospital after explaining to him that she had spoken to Regina and that she still wasn't ready to see him. That had taken quite a while to convince him that he couldn't go hunting through the town for her but Rachel had finally managed to get him to see it her way and had spent the morning distracting him.

They had bought him clothes first. More clothes than he had ever owned in his entire life combined. They were made of strange fabrics, stretchy ones some of them and so many different types and fantastical colours.

Daniel, having been somewhat alarmed by it all, had settled for simple. A pair of pale blue 'jeans', a white 'tee shirt' and a dark brown leather jacket. His shoes were a little fancy. Rachel had called them 'cowboy boots' but she had told them they would be suited for riding, despite the intricate tooling on the leather which he thought too fine for the task.

He had several bags filled with similar as well as 'sweaters' which seemed to be thick woollen tunics to be worn under jackets and –somewhat embarrassingly- underwear. Rachel hadn't seemed embarrassed in the slightest and adding those things to the basket before bartering for them on Daniel's behalf but –then again- she had seen him naked.

"I shall need work." He said suddenly.

"Well, we can look into that. For now…"

"No." Daniel spoke firmly. "Now. I will not live off charity. This is an inn, I must pay my way. Those were expensive, I owe you for them."

"You don't owe me for…"

"I do. The healing alone would be costly. Doctors were expensive in the Enchanted Forest. None of the hospital looked cheap either."

Rachel didn't really have an argument for that.

"You sure you're up for it?"

"I feel fine." Daniel supposed that was as apt a word as any. Physically, he felt fantastic. He felt like he could run for miles, for days on end, like he could lift carriages, but he ached to see Regina…he had promised her time.

For now.

"Alright." Rachel held out a key to him and he accepted it warily. "We'll go and see Eugene, my husband, he might know of something. He works in one of the bars here."

"A bar?"

"A tavern." Rachel corrected herself. "He's one of the barmen. He –uh- serves the drinks."

Daniel frowned a little but nodded anyway.

He didn't look too enamoured with working in a bar, but he did seem determined. He squared his shoulders and looked down at her.

"Thank you."

"It's nothing, don't worry about it." Rachel waved it away with a smile and stopped when his hand landed on her arm. He frowned down at her.

"Rachel, it is certainly not nothing to me. Thank you. I would be lost without help."

"Well…it's not as altruistic as you think." Rachel shifted and then reached into her 'purse' rummaging for a second. She lifted out a paper envelope and hesitated a moment. "This is…yours."

Daniel took the envelope and studied it, turning it over. It had no writing on it. Opening it, he reached in and removed the paper cuttings inside. He frowned.

"This is money here."

"Yes."

Daniel studied the paper money. There seemed to be a lot of it. Dollars, he remembered the name for the currency.

"If you want, I can show you how much each note is worth and…"

"Twenty dollars." Daniel held up a twenty and showed it to her. "I can read and write and count."

"Oh. That's…"

"Unusual." Daniel said dryly.

"Good." Rachel corrected firmly. "I was going to say 'good'."

"Regina taught me." Daniel studied the money in the envelope. "There has to be hundreds of dollars here."

"Nearly a thousand." Rachel agreed.

That was after she'd paid the room for a month and bought him all his clothes too. It would seem that –if Regina could casually give this much money- the bank might bounce if she wrote cheques.

"Regina gave you this." Daniel looked up suddenly. "Not that you haven't been kind but…"

"She's the only one who has reason to be so generous?" Rachel smiled and nodded. "Yeah, it's from her. She thinks you might be in danger if it became widely known you're important to her."

"I haven't been silent about my need to be close to her, nor for the reason behind it." Daniel removed several notes from the pile and then turned, putting the envelope into a drawer. He stuffed the notes into one of his pockets and turned back to Rachel. "Shall we?"

"There's no hurry." Rachel backed out of the room when he moved to leave anyway, watching him lock it behind them.

"Perhaps not, but if I don't do something to distract me, I'll go mad." Daniel rolled his shoulders in a shrug and pocketed the key too. He'd never had reason to lock his door in the Enchanted Forest. Then again, he hadn't had a lock or anything worth stealing either.

The only thing worth having had been Regina and it was him that had been stolen from her.

_**The Ugly Duckling**_

"Hello, beautiful." Eugene came out from behind the bar and dropped a kiss on Rachel's lips when she turned her face up to his.

"Hello." She smiled at him softly and then rocked back down onto the flat of her feet. "I have someone I want you to meet."

"Oh?" Eugene lifted his head to look behind his wife and stilled when he saw a complete stranger. A tall, well built, expensively dressed stranger. He glanced down at Rapunzel. "Should I be worried?"

"Definitely not." Rachel smirked, settling her arm around his waist and waving the man closer. "Eugene, this is Daniel. Daniel, Eugene."

"It's nice to meet you." Daniel held out his hand as he'd been told he had to do and hurriedly gentled his grip when Eugene winced at its strength.

Being in the tavern made him edgy. Places like this did not have fond memories for him. Too many nights waiting in the foul smell and worse company for his father to finish drinking his problems and his purse away. Too many wounds from getting between his father and whoever he had decided to pick a fight with.

Taverns –to Daniel- were the stench of sick, the red colour of bloodied knuckles and the sound of slurred insults.

"You too." Eugene shook his hand once and glanced down at Rachel.

"Daniel's curse was particularly nasty." Rachel hadn't told Eugene much of what had gone on with the whole Whale-Meddling-With-Life-and-Death thing. She'd been so exhausted picking up the slack that the other doctor had left that she'd pretty much been falling into bed as soon as she got home the last few nights. "He's just now recovered and is looking for a job. I told him you would help him."

"You did?" Eugene looked down at his wife and resisted the urge to whine. "Rapunzel, we're not exactly swimming in jobs here."

"No, just women apparently." Rachel smiled in a brittle manner. "I'm sure you can talk to your many, many, friends and find something. As a favour. To me. Your wife."

Eugene dropped his arm from around her shoulders and pursed his lips.

"I was cursed. We all were."

"I know." Rachel smiled sweetly. "While you do that, we're going to sit over there, order some lunch."

"Great." Eugene eyeballed Daniel a little and Daniel just blinked in return. Obviously not in on the joke.

"Bring us something nice." Rachel went up on her tiptoes, kissed him on the cheek and then turned to lead Daniel across the bar to one of the booths on the other side.

Daniel shrugged his jacket from his shoulders and sat uneasily. He hated taverns. He was disappointed, in this strange world that was so different from the Enchanted Forest, that some things remained the same.

The smell of alcohol and the great unwashed. Loud chatter, louder, lewder insults. Smoke heavy in the air and…Daniel's dark thoughts stalled when three small heads each haloed by a riot of red curls appeared over the top of the table.

"Hello, boys." Rachel smiled and all three of the young boys grinned. "What have you done this time?"

The three boys, so young they had to stand on their tiptoes to see over the top of the table, held up a small black nozzle. They had a mixture of gleeful pride and sheepishness on their faces.

"Come on then." Rachel rolled her eyes, though a smile teased her mouth.

Giggling riotously, the three boys ducked under the table, clambered over Daniel's legs and up onto the bench curving around the back of the booth, ducked behind the table.

"Daniel, this is Harris, Hubert and Hamish Dunbroch." Rachel pointed to each apparently identical boy in turn.

Harris, at least the one Rachel had told him was Harris, held out the black nozzle to Daniel.

"What is it?" Daniel turned it over in his hands. It was made of that black 'plastic' material and felt faintly sticky.

"I do believe it's one of the nozzles from the drink dispenser. Probably the one that keeps it from spraying in all directions." Rachel turned to look over at the bar. "If I'm not very much mistaken, then it probably belongs on the hose that Eugene's about to use right now."

Daniel looked over and saw Eugene laughing with one of the patrons, scooping ice into a glass filled with an amber shot of something else. He picked up the soda hose, his attention still fixed on the woman he was chatting to, and he depressed the button for the soda.

It went _everywhere_.

On the bar, on the customer, splashing back onto Eugene, even onto the floor. The only place it didn't appear to get was in the glass itself.

Eugene staggered back, spluttering and mopping at his face, his eyes unerringly going to Rachel's table and the barest hint of red curls he could see ducked down behind it.

"_BOYS!" _

All three of the triplets ducked down further at that single word issuing from not too far away.

Daniel twisted to see a stately woman, tall, with long brown hair, a single streak greying at her temple, marching towards them. She wore a long green skirt and a cream sweater. Simple clothes, but she moved with the unmistakable bearing of a queen.

"_What_ have I told you about being behind the bar?" The woman loomed over the table, hands planted on her hips and skirts swishing. Her accent was strange. She noticed Rachel belatedly and her entire demeanour softening. "Hello, Rapunzel, how are you dear?"

"Just fine, Eleanor, thank you." Rachel nodded even as Eleanor snapped her fingers and pointed imperiously at the floor at her feet.

The triplets, shoulders slumped in dejection, clambered under the table and meekly stood at her heels. The wicked grins they sent each other's way belied their apparent remorse though.

"This is Daniel. A friend of mine." Rachel nodded in Daniel's direction.

"It's good to meet you, Lady Eleanor." Daniel rose to his feet, accepting her hand and bending low to her knuckles. He didn't kiss them, as that would be above his station but it pleased Eleanor just the same.

"Oh, such manners." Eleanor grinned at him. "Boys, take note." She told her sons sharply.

Harris, Hubert and Hamish all looked up, studying Daniel owlishly and he managed a lopsided smirk.

"Please, sit, sit." Eleanor waved him back down to his seat and gave in when Rachel scooted around the booth to offer her a space too. Eleanor sat and the three boys scurried back under the table to sit between Daniel and Rachel again.

"So, Daniel, tell us a little about yerself." Eleanor smiled softly at him and it was easy to see that –while she could be fierce- she loved her children dearly.

"Um…not much to tell really, I was a stable boy in the Enchanted Forest and only recently arrived in Storybrooke." Daniel wisely decided to skirt all mention of Regina or his relationship with her.

"Really? That's unusual." Eleanor laughed. "Well, I suppose that's a relative term here."

"Eleanor, we were actually here to beg a job for Daniel. He needs work." Rachel deftly steered the conversation to safer subjects.

"Work you say," Eleanor eyed Daniel shrewdly, "ye were a stable lad?"

"Yes, I cared for the horses and the stables in…a sizeable estate." Daniel was hesitant to even mention the name Miller in case this sharp woman made the connection.

He wasn't ashamed of Regina or his connection to her, but he needed a job.

"I take it you don't have any cursed memories? No skills that you picked up in your time here?"

"I can already read and write if that's what you're asking." Daniel smiled. "I was taught by my masters in the Enchanted Forest."

"Well, that'll stand ye in good stead." Eleanor's brows rose. "I can certainly ask around for ye. We'll find you something. Don't you worry." Eleanor bestowed a beaming smile on him.

"Thank you."

"Beer." A wet Eugene arrived at the table and clapped a tankard down in front of Daniel. "White wine, club soda and chocolate milk." Eugene put drinks in front of Eleanor, Rachel and the boys respectively. He glowered at them and held out his hand.

A black nozzle was meekly handed over.

"Lunch and retribution to follow." Eugene pointed two fingers at his eyes and then swivelled his hand to indicate the boys too.

The boys giggled and Eugene smirked a little before turning to go back to the bar and maybe wring his tee shirt out.

"He is very good with children." Eleanor said and Rachel groaned.

"I'm just saying, you don't have a curse to keep you from getting older!" Eleanor professed her innocence. "Might be an idea to have a few of your own."

"I'm twenty nine, I'm not dead yet." Rachel defended herself.

"What about you, Daniel? Married? Children?"

"Engaged." Daniel smiled. "We hoped to have a house full."

"Wonderful, you must bring your lady to see us." Eleanor beamed at him and Daniel smiled easily in return.

He had no intention of doing so, of course. Firstly because he had to convince Regina to _talk_ to him before he could take her anywhere and, secondly, he had the impression that she wouldn't be entirely welcome there anyway.

Rachel smirked but hid it in her drink.

Daniel lifted his own drink, prepared to try the beer at least, and froze when the meaty sound of a fist meeting face clapped out. Two men, who had been bickering loudly, had finally wound up to fisticuffs.

The larger of the two had taken a right to the chin and staggered back. Right for their table on Eleanor and Rachel's side.

Daniel lunged from his seat and caught the man, deflecting him away to tumble onto the floor.

"Hey!" The first man glared at Daniel. "What you think you're doing?"

"Stopping two idiots from hurting the ladies." Daniel squared his shoulders.

"Bastard!"

The man on the floor sat up in a hurry and swung for Daniel's stomach. Daniel hopped back out of range and fought down a growl. Every time. Every damn time he ever came into a tavern, it ended in a fight. He didn't even have his drunkard father to blame for this one.

The first man lunged for Daniel at the same time as the other regained his feet. Apparently they were more interested in beating the stuffing out of Daniel rather than each other.

Still, they were clumsy, they were drunk, and Daniel didn't have the patience to humour them.

He grabbed them both by the scruff in a hand each. He hauled them close, intending to drag them up onto their toes and his brows raised in surprise when both men were suddenly over his head, feet kicking helplessly above the ground.

Looking at his arms, as if to check it was him that was doing it, Daniel saw the muscles there bunched effortlessly under the weight of two full grown men. He glanced down at the floor and saw their toes swinging several inches above it.

He hadn't realised, hadn't even noticed, their weight. He should have struggled to deal with one of them, even as good a brawler as he'd had to be, but he held both of them without any hassle at all. They still struggled though.

Daniel smacked their skulls together and then dropped both stunned men to the floor. He studied his hands, flexing his fingers and then looked up at Eleanor and Rachel.

The bar had gone completely silent. He looked about himself and shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

"That's new." He confessed.

"It certainly is." Eleanor grinned and rose to her feet. Stepping over the legs of one of the fallen men. "How would you like to be a splatter?"

"A what?" Rachel and David said at the same time.

"It's like a bouncer but more forceful." Eleanor grinned. She waved at the two men that Daniel stood over. "That was well done, I could do with more of that to prevent damage to the furniture if nothing else."

"Hours and wage?" Rachel sipped from her drink to steady herself. She'd suspected, because of him snapping his manacle, but to see it right in front of her…it was a pity she didn't think Daniel would submit to more tests. She wondered what his upper limit was.

"Thursday to Sunday," Eleanor shrugged, "eight dollars an hour."

"Ten and free dinners when he works here."

"Nine and free drinks as well as dinners."

"Done." Rachel smiled and nodded to Daniel. "Where should he put the trash?"

"Oh, just toss them outside. I'm sure my dearest husband will let them back in by the time they've come too."

Daniel, a little mystified as to what had just happened and how brawling had gotten him a job, nodded and dragged the two insensate men to the door. He was _strong_. It should worry him. He should be concerned as to what else had changed in him but, all he could think, was that Regina wouldn't have the excuse of worrying that people could hurt him.

He was more than capable of defending himself.

_**The Guesthouse,**_

Daniel waved to Rachel and Eugene as they drove off and turned to head back into the guest house. He had a bundle of tee shirts under his arm with the Ugly Duckling logo on them, his uniform for working as a splatter and a bag of books and some food that they'd picked up while at the 'supermarket'.

Daniel had been tempted to buy a dictionary, just to catch up with all the words, but had wanted to buy a book on electronics and one on cars too. Rachel had also recommended a compendium of something called the National Geographic. Apparently it would cover a lot about this world for him.

Daniel pushed into the guesthouse and stilled when he found someone watching him.

"Hello."

"You'd be Daniel then?"

"Yes." Daniel studied the older woman in front of him. She must be Granny then. He juggled his things and held out his hand. "Nice to meet you."

"Granny." She nodded and shook his hand with a firm grip. "Rachel tells me you're staying with us until you can find somewhere of your own."

Until he could convince Regina to take him back.

"Yes." Daniel nodded and smiled.

"She tells me that you're Regina's man too."

"I find that hard to believe." Daniel's smile faded and he studied the older woman carefully.

"Rachel only told me because the queen and I have an alliance."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Everyone else –her own son even- thinks she's hell on earth. Why are you allied with her when no one else is?"

Granny mulled him over. He was smart. Well, she supposed Regina –who didn't exactly suffer anyone gladly- would have almost no tolerance for fools.

"She has her uses." Granny shrugged a shoulder. "Better to walk behind her than cross her path."

"She is not a thing." Daniel's jaw clenched. "Don't treat her like one."

"It's nothing worse than she's done to all of us." Granny folded her arms over her chest, speaking in a warning tone.

"I don't care. None of you know anything about her." Daniel hefted his bag and decided he'd rather not have this conversation. How was he going to stand it? How was he going to be able to stand by and say nothing if people insisted on vilifying the woman he loved?

"It could be argued that we know enough."

"Well, I'm telling you that you _don't._" Daniel inhaled a deep breath to calm himself. "She's done horrible things, I've been told about them all, but I'm clever enough to know that can't be the whole story. The woman I knew wouldn't turn into the monster she showed you without a damn good reason. 'Evil' is not a reason. It's what she did, not what she is."

Granny rocked back on her heels and studied the man before her. She inhaled a deep breath and studied his scent just as carefully. Hot damn, it was true. The boy loved her. Truly loved her.

Granny recognised the scent that usually followed Charming and Snow like smog in a city, it was different belonging to different people as it did, but similar enough for Granny to recognise the base notes.

She thought about what she had seen in Regina days previously. About the queen on borrowed time.

She should suffer. She really should. She should be punished for what she'd done but…Granny was beginning to think that the punishment had come long before the crimes. There wasn't really anything that could be done to Regina that hadn't already happened.

"You're sure you're right?" She said to Daniel instead.

"I know I am."

"Despite everything you've heard."

"The woman I…knew is still in there. I know it. I wouldn't be here if she wasn't."

Granny nodded slowly and twisted her mouth. This was probably a bad idea…but it wasn't like Regina would have long to regret it.

"Have you seen her yet?"

"No." Daniel's shoulders slumped a little and Granny smirked.

"Would you like to?"


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8 – And Finally They Meet**

Regina lifted her head at the knock of the door.

Hmm, angry mob or pleading doctor? Hell, it might even be a werewolf trying to feed her to the Blue Faerie.

Regina winced when she pushed off the couch and to her feet. She grimaced when her muscles twinged and her joints clicked. She had spent most of the day doing as little as possible. She still felt drained and weak, despite having been healed by Rapunzel's hair. The burst of energy that had granted her had been false. She'd furiously cleaned yesterday in order to distract herself and had paid bitterly for it this morning.

The door was hammered again and Regina growled. If they had damaged the paintwork, they were going to get a piece of her mind. A nasty piece.

She fumbled the key into the lock, swung the door open, her mouth already open to tell them to leave her the hell alone and the words died a hoarse croak in her throat.

Daniel.

"Regina!"

His smile nearly undid her. He looked so happy to see her. So overjoyed. He looked as happy as she had felt when she had brought him back. He took a step forward and the fear reared its head.

She slammed the door shut, jamming the key around in the lock and falling against it.

"Regina!" Daniel knocked on the door again. Calling through it to her. "Regina, please, open the door."

Regina's chest heaved, her eyes wide in shock and fear and so many other emotions she couldn't put them all together. She felt her legs buckle and she slid slowly down the door, crumpling to the floor.

She couldn't. She just couldn't.

"Regina, I know you're scared, but you need to talk to me."

Regina clapped her hand over her mouth to choke back the sob.

She wasn't strong enough for this. She was so weak. She hurt all over. Exhaustion plagued her. She felt her magic roil, flipping her stomach over and over.

"Please?"

Regina squeezed her eyes shut and fisted her hands in her hair.

"Henry came to see me."

Regina's shoulders sagged. Of course he had.

"He's a wonderful boy, Regina. Clever and confident. A little confused, but I can sympathise with that." He had lowered himself to a crouch. He knew she was sitting on the floor. Of course he knew. "We talked about you, he wanted to know about you."

Regina pressed her lips together.

Henry would have told him everything. He'd have read that damn book cover to cover, extolling her every sin…and it didn't even cover half of them.

"He gave me the book to read." Daniel's voice changed as he sat down on the porch, leaning against the door.

He was so close. So close. All she had to do was open the door and…and…and watch his face fall when he realised what she was now. She wasn't that girl, not the girl he had fallen in love with, not anymore.

"We read it together. For every story he told me about the Evil Queen, I told him one about you. About how we first met, how we fell in love, how you saved Snow's life…about how I died."

Regina pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes. She would not cry. She was sick of crying. All she ever seemed to do was fucking cry.

"I died loving you, Regina. I died for loving you. I know what that cost you. I know how much it hurt you." He was quiet a moment. "Maybe I'm the only one that does. I'm the only one that knew you then, knew you before Cora broke you, the only one that knew the real you. All everyone else sees is…the mask."

Regina snorted. He was wrong. The Evil Queen couldn't have come about unless she was there to begin with. Regina was bad, she always had been. Daniel had brought out the good in her, so had Henry, but they had both ended up leaving her. Regina was the mask, not the Evil Queen.

"Don't dismiss me." Daniel warned her. "I know you think I'm wrong, but I'm not. Open the door, Regina. Let me in and I'll prove it to you."

Regina hugged her knees.

"Please?"

Regina huddled even smaller into herself if it was at all possible.

"Regina, I love you. Please let me in."

Regina leapt up suddenly. She tunnelled her fingers through her hair, pacing back and forth. She scrambled frantically for strength. For anger. Something to keep her from breaking down.

"Go away!" She rounded on the door suddenly. "You're not welcome here!"

Her chest heaved and she weaved under the effort it had taken her to summon the words.

"Regina…"

"No!" Regina thumped the door with her fist. "Go away!"

"I love you. Let me in."

"You can't." Regina paced back and forth, wringing her hands. "Go away, Daniel!"

She paced some more and slowly lifted her head after a moment.

"Daniel?"

_**Meanwhile**_…

Daniel slipped around the side of the huge white house, looking for a way in. Yeah, sure, he was just going to leave now that all that separated them was a couple of measly doors and walls. He smirked when he came across the patio and a set of double windowed doors. He snapped the lock on the back door with minimal effort and pushed it open. The hinges swung with a well-oiled silence and he smirked. Trust her to have everything running smoothly.

He snuck through the kitchen, admiring the house. It was all smooth lines and cream walls. Not what they had talked about having, but it was nice. Saved from being cold by the bowls of red apples and the various nods to there having been a child in the house at one point.

Henry, the boy who had pestered Daniel at the hospital. Her son who had abandoned her.

Daniel's sharp ears pricked at the sound of clipping footsteps. Even after decades, murder, death and rebirth, he'd recognise her footfalls anywhere.

He slinked into the hallway and just stopped when he saw her. She was pacing, prowling back and forth in the hallway. She had her hands on her hips and her head down, watching her steps.

She was beautiful. She had matured into a stunning woman, the innocence of her youth gone but she had changed from fresh faced and pretty to a sultry and mature female of striking presence. It was easy to see that she had once been a queen, despite her wishes against it, she commanded every room she occupied.

"Oh hell." She broke suddenly and dashed for the door, which Daniel thought was inadvisable in those shoes.

She threw it open, tensing when she saw the porch empty and finally sagging. Her shoulders slumped and a slow breath rushed from her. Daniel smirked.

"I knew you still loved me."

Regina gasped and whirled, her hand lifting to do who knew what and a look of utter shock painting her features.

"What are you doing here?"

Had Daniel not been against such a thing, he'd have been impressed by how quickly she commanded herself. She hauled her regal mask up almost instantly, quashing her surprise and straightening her posture, meeting him head on.

"You have no right to be here. Get out."

"No." Daniel planted his feet and stared her down.

"This is breaking and entering. Against the law in this land. You will be arrested."

"In the Evil Queen's house? I doubt the Charming sheriff will do that. I sense a bit of bias there." Daniel shrugged his shoulder and couldn't help himself. He drank in the sight of her, even as she angrily advanced on him as if she intended to bodily throw him out the door. She stopped short of grabbing him by the arm and swept hers out towards the still open door instead.

"Get out. You're not welcome here."

Daniel shrugged his shoulders and started for the front door, not missing the stricken flash of emotion in her eyes when he did so. The anger made a reappearance when he gripped the door with one hand and slammed it shut with a flick of his wrist and a boom of sound. He turned and leaned against it, folding his arms over his chest.

He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Get. Out." She advanced on him again, her hands flexing at her sides and Daniel leaned down so they were at eye level.

"No."

"It's my house. You can't be here. Get out."

"No."

"Why not?" She demanded between gritted teeth.

"Because you can't avoid me forever." He spoke with an infuriating calm. "Not if you ever want to go outside again."

"I'm hardly welcome out there." She shrugged a shoulder.

"It makes no difference. I'm not going. I'm not your servant anymore. I don't have to do what you tell me."

"You were never my servant and well you know it." She snapped at him, pacing back up the steps to the main floor of the house. Her heels clicking on the polished stone floor. "Get out."

"Why should I obey you? Because you're the queen? The mayor?"

"Pick whichever grants your unflinching obedience." She growled and he smirked when he realised he found it attractive.

"I'm sensing a particularly circular trend to this conversation." Daniel confided in her, he pushed away from the door and approached her cautiously. She had the same look in her eye of a flighty mare prepared to shy and bolt at the least provocation.

"We can't do this." She backed away from him but he followed her, speaking in that low and steady voice.

"Do what? We're just talking."

"You can't be close to me. It makes you a target."

"I can look out for myself." Daniel shrugged on a smile and very real rage flashed in her eyes then.

"What? Like you did when my mother murdered you? Ripped out your heart right in front of me? Like _that_, Daniel?"

"Things have changed." Daniel's voice was firm.

He knew she was angry at him for leaving her. Then guilty that she felt that way. Horrified at the memory of his death and broken by the feeling that it had somehow been her fault. He knew it all.

"Yes," she continued blithely, hauling on a new face, the callus and blasé one, "now you have one of my hearts. From my vault. One of the _hundreds_ I've collected over the years. I have so many, such pretty little things, perhaps I should have labelled them." She lifted a hand and tapped her finger against her full lips. "At least that way you might know whose heart you had because I certainly don't! I've taken too many to count!" Her voice sharpened with her anger and Daniel accepted it.

"Regina…"

"They're incredibly powerful, you know." She slipped back into the congenial tone, civilised and polite once more. Making it clear she had plenty of practice hiding such rage. "One of them –just one- fuelled this entire curse. Built an entire town from nothing, stole an entire _world_ full of people and filled their heads with dreamlike memories. Thousands of people and hundreds of artefacts from the Enchanted Forest all brought to this world by ONE heart…my father's heart." Regina shrugged her shoulders with a small smile, though her eyes were screaming, begging him to stop this. "It was heavier than I expected. When I ripped it from his chest. You know, the same way my mother took yours."

"Regina, stop."

"Oh, I'm sorry, what a poor host I'm being. Are you tired, do you need to lie down? Perhaps I'll whip up a little something to help you sleep. How about a nice enchanted apple?" Regina clapped her hands together once and smiled brightly, nodding at him. "I'm good at those. Experience earned through sending Snow White into a sleeping curse. A haunting place filled with her deepest regrets. You remember Snow, don't you? Sweet little girl, bit empty in the head but –as her mother by marriage- I think I was actually supposed to _look after her_ rather than destroy and entire realm trying to murder her!"

"Regina…" Daniel tried again, tried to take her by the shoulders and ground her but she shot backwards, dancing away on those ridiculous shoes of hers.

She held her hands up as if to ward him off. Like she was contagious. Toxic.

"Oh no, dearest Daniel, you don't want to get too close. I'm a terrible lover. I use and loose men like you read about –hah! Literally." She shook her head, grinning inanely and wiping the tear from her cheek as if it was part of her amusement. "Like Sidney, the man I manipulated into killing my husband. Tricked into murder and then cursed into a mirror. Ooooh, or maybe Graham. Would you prefer that? To have your heart taken but be left alive, a slave to my every whim so I could use you again and again and AGAIN…"

Daniel cut her off when he thought she was about to break.

"Like you were used?"

The sob seemed to catch Regina completely by surprise and she convulsed with it, her arms catching herself around the middle. Daniel caught her by the waist when he thought she was going to just crumple to the floor.

"Should I hold you?" His voice was quiet. He knew she'd hear him though. Her pain, her tears, were silent. "Like you held your son when he needed it? Should I take your pain? Like you took mine? Shall I kiss you –with true love- as you did me?"

She sobbed again, a sound torn from her throat and chest and right out of her heart.

"A love you so obviously still feel or I wouldn't be standing here. A love I feel too and will feel forever and years beyond that. No matter who or what you are, no matter how far apart we are, I will love you. It is a love that never died, Regina, even when I did."

She whimpered at that and he pulled her closer, tucking her against his chest. He held her tightly, trying to get her to understand that he wouldn't ever leave her again.

"Just stop, love. Stop hurting yourself and let me in. Let me love you."

"You," she choked on her tears against his chest, still refusing to hold him in return, "you don't even know me."

"Of course I do. You're Regina. You're mine."

"You can't know me!" She shoved him away, tears streaming down her face but she was still beautiful. "How can you say that? The girl you loved, that Regina is GONE! She died when you did. If you ever loved me, if you really do care for me, then go now and _never_ come back. Mourn the loss of your love, of that girl of yours because she's just not here anymore!"

"Yes she is!" Daniel seized her by the shoulders and hauled her close so his eyes bored into hers. "She's in there, screaming for help. You wouldn't be killing yourself over what you'd done if she wasn't. I helped you before, when we were young and before the world got to us and –by the gods- I shall help you again in this new world. I didn't come all the way back from the dead to let you go again."

"That's sweet," she seemed unmoved, unwilling or unable to let herself hope, "but this is the 'real' world and happy endings are in such short supply. I am not that girl anymore."

"You could be."

"No." Regina shook her head. "I couldn't. The magic has me, Daniel, just like it had my mother and it's going to drag me right to my grave and…that's okay. It's the end of the road," she reached up and cupped his cheek, smiling like the Regina he had known once upon a time, "I brought you back. You can live on…my last good deed."

"What are you talking about? What's happened?" Panic seized him. She talked like the hangman was at her shoulder. What did she know?

Something flickered in her gaze. Barely realised –a half formed thought tidied away before he could see it. Her sad smile never faltered.

"The mob, sweetheart. Henry bargained for my life but it won't last forever. I'm on borrowed time and everyone knows it."

"No. I won't let them."

"You can't stop an entire town, dear."

"Yes I can. I will protect you."

"Oh, like you did before?" Her hand dropped from his face. "Was that before or after you died in my arms and shattered my soul? I can't quite recall."

Daniel jerked back as if slapped and she smirked at him.

"I probably should have mentioned that I'm cruel now. It's part of the whole Evil thing I've got going on." She waved her hands to encompass everything around her. She sobered after a moment. "Evil means that I cannot love, Daniel. If you're stupid enough to stay with me than that just means that you'll learn to hate me too and…I don't think I can take that. I can handle the rest of it. The rest of the whole WORLD can hate me and that's just dandy but, if you did, I do believe it would destroy my very soul." Regina spoke with a calm business-like tone.

"So, go. Being evil means I'm selfish now too and I just can't stand the thought of you…_despising_ me like everyone else does. Consider it a last request."

It was the acceptance that did it. The calm resignation towards her ill fate that she had. His Regina wasn't like that. Not the girl he remembered and he knew –in his very bones he knew- that she was still in there. Still there and surrounded by so much more. This fierce, strong, terrifying woman who felt with everything she had. Who loved so well that she didn't know how to stop and she was tired, exhausted. She wanted to give up and she couldn't. Not when he had found her again. Not now that they had a chance at being together.

Daniel didn't want a happy ending. He'd had enough of endings. He'd take a hopeful beginning and an uncertain future over a happy ending any day.

"_ENOUGH!" _He surprised even himself with the depth of that bellow and she actually hopped back a step from him.

"You are NOT going to die. I will not allow it!" Daniel pointed at her viciously but he wasn't really angry at her. He was angry with himself for leaving her.

He should have known not to trust Cora. He hadn't loved her blindly, helplessly, the way Regina had. Whenever he had looked into that old bitch's eyes he'd seen a gaping chasm of nothing looking right back at him. She was good, he'd give her that, but he should have been better. Because he'd been a stupid idealistic boy, she'd killed him and shattered the love of his life.

Never again.

"I'll destroy anyone who tries to harm you." The words seethed from him on a growl and Regina blinked at him, fooled for a moment before she shook her head and smiled at him.

"No you won't." She shrugged. "You're too kind. Too gentle. You'd never hurt anyone."

"That was before. This is now_._" He looked her in the eye and willed her to see the truth. "Do you think dying didn't change me? Do you think there isn't darkness in me too?"

Regina opened her mouth to tell him no. She didn't but he sliced his hand through the air and startled her into silence.

"If your mother wasn't already dead and stood before me now, she'd be in bloodied pieces all over this house. If I get half a chance I'll make a gift to you of Rumplestiltskin's head. I could desecrate Leopold's mouldering corpse for taking the woman who was to be MY wife!" The rage gaped wide in him, sucking in every other feeling and feeding off it. Growing fat and hungry for more.

This was what it was like. This was being a man and feeling the helpless rage in the face of life itself taking its toll on his loved ones. Knowing that his loved one had paid more than most.

"Did you _really_ think that you were the only one who would be broken without our love? Did you honestly believe that you loved me so much more than I did you?"

"You didn't break!" Regina couldn't stand this pouring out of him.

All this pain and rage that she had made him vulnerable to by bringing him back to life. Her selfishness had caused him this agony. She had thought she'd managed to take the pain but she'd just supplanted it with another.

"If it had been me that had died, if I had lain in your arms and breathed my last, YOU would have moved on! There isn't anything inherently _wrong_ with you. You wouldn't have cursed a whole damn world because you couldn't stand the thought of being in it without me there."

Daniel sagged suddenly, his shoulders slumping and he stared at his hands.

"No." He agreed softly, examining his hands like he was seeing them for the first time and then clenching them into white knuckled fists. When he looked up at her again, his eyes were on fire. "Regina, without you, I'd have _burned _it."

"What?" Regina actually took a step back from him but he was tired of her fleeing from him, from what she felt for him, so he followed her, backing her up against the wall.

"You have the greatest capacity to love. Whatever you do, you do with every fibre of your being and every spark in your soul. You love so intensely it's like basking in sunlight to have it shone on me and –when you feel pain- that sun burns you just as fiercely. How could I not love you with everything I have? How could I not love absolutely everything about you? Even the things that I shouldn't even like? To do anything less –anything less than give you everything I have- would be unworthy." He reached out gently, taking her hands in his and searching her face.

Past all the masks she wore, one on top of the other, peeling them back until he got to the core of her and begging her to be as truthful with herself as she wanted to be to him.

"Am I not worthy?"

"Of course you are. I didn't say…"

"Then what's stopping you?"

"Me." She searched his face for understanding praying she both would and wouldn't find it. "My past."

"Is exactly that, you can't do anything but accept it and try and move on. With me. Build a future with me, Regina. We can't have the life we wanted but that isn't to say we can't have a damn good life. We can be happy."

"Any happiness I have is torn away. It's always been that way."

"Not anymore. Not with me here."

"Why are you so sure you can protect me?"

"I'm stronger now." He knew she didn't realise the full extent of what he meant but –if she only gave him a chance- he'd spend the rest of their lives showing her.

"Not stronger than me, nor Rumplestiltskin or an entire town full of angry villagers complete with social networking and pitchforks." She waved her hand wildly.

"Try me." He bared his teeth. "I'll shuck them like prawns and eat them raw."

Regina went pale, paler than she already was, and pulled her hands from him. She stepped back, her eyes going wide.

"What did you say?" Her voice was a hoarse whisper and Daniel gentled his smile, shrugging.

"I didn't really mean it, Regina." He smirked to let her know he really was joking. "I probably couldn't eat them all in one sitting."

"No." The word left her on a rushed breath of horror and Daniel was left grasping at purple smoke when she disappeared.

Regina reappeared across town and deep within the catacombs of her vault. She threw open the door to the inner sanctum and tore open the closet with the hearts still stored there. She could see the little glimmers of pink light peeking out through the gaps in the drawers and began yanking them open.

She was right, she really should have labelled them. Gods damn her and her psychopathic need for power, for trophies.

Regina hauled the drawers out, one after the other, they clattered to the floor, hearts plinking like glass balls and rolling awkwardly away. She knew none of them would shatter, it took a particular kind of intent to crush a heart. You had to really _mean _it.

She was looking for the odd one out. She found several empty drawers, Whale must have taken more than one heart for his attempts, but that wasn't really what she as looking for. She was looking for one particular heart and her fingers hesitated when she reached drawer with the ivory box inside. The reinforced one. It was bigger than the rest and she could sense, even through the wood and bone surrounding it, that what she was looking for was right there…or rather, that what was missing wasn't there at all.

She pulled the drawer, tugging carefully like the contents might attack her at any moment. She pulled it right out, as if the heart inside might have crammed itself into a corner or something as equally foolish.

Regina stood, her hands shaking violently, the box shuddering between her palms and her legs folded beneath her. She sank to the floor. The box tumbled from her lap and she covered her mouth with her hand, trying to convince herself that she must be mistaken that the Curse had been blessed with the sense not to bring an object of such terrifying power with her even if she hadn't…but she knew that was not the case.

Regina tilted forward and her head thudded against the cabinet of hearts. She could feel them pulsing in a steady throb, radiating magic onto her in a steady drumming of guilt.

So many, so many, she hadn't been lying when she had said that she didn't remember who they all belonged to but she remembered this one.

Of _course_ Whale would take the biggest heart. He'd want the best chance of success and the biggest would more than likely mean the strongest wouldn't it? Typical doctor, governed more by logic than sense. Still, she understood his reasoning…

…but why, oh why, oh _why,_ had he had to take Hyde's?


	9. Chapter 9

**D'aaawww, you guuuuyyzz...seriously though, thanks for all the reviews. I'm not well right now so the warm fuzzies of the ego stroking is good for me. Feel free to continue :D**

**I've decided that -since you're all so lovely to me and should have such generosity of reviews repaid in kind- that I'll update roughly every monday and friday so long as scheduling and muses allow. Don't hold me to that because procrastination is my kryptonite but i want to update fairly steadily for you guys. Now, since I don't want to catch up with myself too quickly, i'll probably just be giving single chapter updates from now on. **

**Which meeeaaanns...CLIFFHANGERS!**

**Oh yeah, you like that, dontchya.**

**NOW, some responses;**

**DUSTYKNIGHT; yeah, Daniel causes me trouble to write so i thought i'd add something into the mix that makes him more interesting -which to other people would also make him a bit more of a bastard- i think it's unfair to assume that Daniel would be this perfect paragon of virtue and goodness, we all of us have darkness in us and why shouldn't a threat to Regina bring that out in Daniel? Also, writing the 32 chapters took me...four months? I'm not sure, i work on other things all the time so it could have been shorter or longer depending on how bad my temporal dyslexia is at any given time. As for Regina giving into him straight away- where's the story in that? Also, it has more to do with Regina not wanting to be hurt herself than it has to do with Daniel, Regina is a wonderful mother and she loves Daniel more than her own sanity but she is terrified of love and quite selfish when it comes to her own feelings. Not that it's not justified but she IS a villain, and that's what's so fun to write about her. There WILL also be some wham-bam-and-thank-you-ma'am's in this but that comes later XD**

Also, huge magical fights SHALL occur, _I'm_ not restricted by a special effects budget nor am i bothered with such things as Regina being too wimpy to open a can of kick-ass. I'm going to start of slowly, a little flash and fire to let her get back into the swing of things and then we move on to the REAL show :D

**CHRISSY; thank you and there shall be more Rapunzel as the story progresses. She and Regina have an interesting dynamic to work off i think. **

**CARO; it makes me happy that you would read in your own time, never just do the recommended reading, read, read, read. Always be smarter. And -as a Scot and having been robbed of Mister Carlyle's accent- i had to include some Celts -plus...maybe Merida will meet a prince that she actually likes. Keep reading to find out :D**

**GUEST (all of you and one in particular); thanks for the reviews, if you're interested in Hyde, there's more on him in this chapter and with Regina's past with him (ho-boy, move over tween Hook, here comes a REAL villain). **

**Other peeps with accounts shall be PM'd as i don't want to take up too much of people's time with replying here. Even if i don't PM (in case i get lazy or forget) your feedback really is appreciated. **

**NOW...the show must go on, so, sit back, relax, read carefully, look for hints as to what's to come and review on your way out if you're feeling kind :D**

**Chapter 9 – Alliances**

David nibbled on a piece of cheese and slung his dishcloth over his shoulder as he threw open the door, bracing himself to deal with the latest complaint about post-curse life.

"Regina?!" David nearly choked on the chunk of cheese and recovered himself as quickly as he was able.

"It's easy to see why Snow didn't name you Graceful." Regina drawled at him and nimbly stepped around him and into the apartment before he could slam the door on her face.

"Henry's not here."

"I should hope not at this time of the day. He should be in school."

"That he should." David glared at the door, like it was at fault for his unwelcome guest. He flicked it closed and rounded on her. He stalled when he saw her. Properly saw her.

She had always been small. It was something he only knew academically because she always seemed to be so much larger when she was there inflicting her presence on him, but now she looked it. She looked thin and drawn and very nearly frail. She paced about the apartment, stalking and taking in the décor, with the nervous energy of a long tailed cat at a rocking chair convention.

He considered her a long moment and then sighed. See, this was the thing about being good; it got you coming as well as going.

"I was about to eat, do you want some?" He made his way back to the pan on the hob and tried to muscle down his flinch when she just _appeared_ at his side. Really, did she have a stealth mode for those heels of hers?

"How charming." She leaned around his arm and inspected the contents of the pan with a look of almost morbid fascination on her face. Like she had discovered a new species of mould and it was currently on the bottom of her shoe. "And what is this supposed to be?"

"Omelette." David shoogled the pan and frowned when the omelette refused to cooperate. "it's a work in progress."

"It's a health hazard is what it is." Regina muttered and stepped bodily into him.

David tried not to squeak as she bumped him out of her way with a knock of her hip.

Really? REALLY?! He was six two, she was five and a titch and had to weigh half of what he did when she was soaking wet!

"Sit down before you hurt yourself." Regina ordered him coolly and picked up the pan, opening the trashcan with a tap of her foot on the pedal and upending his lunch into it.

"Hey!"

"Sit." Regina cast a dark look at him and David found his legs folding under him and was eternally grateful that there was a stool under his ass or he would have been flat on the floor.

"Good." Regina told him archly and set the pan back onto the heat, shrugging her jacket from her shoulders and neatly deposited it over David's head, trusting that even he would know what to do with it. She rolled back her shirt sleeves and took a step back from the cabinets, eyeing them.

"Snow is right handed…prefers tea…quick and easy over prepared…" Regina held her hand up waving it in front of the cabinets as if dousing for something and then snapped her fingers. "Bowls." She predicted and opened the cupboard, smirking when she found herself correct.

"That trick would be more impressive if you hadn't broken in here and rifled through the place before."

"What is impressive is you having survived for all those years in the Enchanted Forest with a price on your _empty_ head." Regina told him archly. "If I was ever here, it certainly would not have been to _rifle_ and you can't prove any of that anyway. Cutlery." Regina snapped open a drawer and scowled, clapping it closed and opening the next one along. David tensed when she pulled out a knife but she either didn't notice or didn't care.

She continued to move about the kitchen, dropping butter into the pan, mixing the eggs and milk in a separate bowl rather than in the pan, looting the fridge for leftovers to bulk up the omelette and slicing everything with a somewhat chilling skill.

David was so busy watching her and trying not to drool at the delicious scents wafting his way that he very nearly forgot to hate her for a few moments. He scowled when he realised he should be watching for slight of hand and skull marked bottles adding special seasoning to his dinner.

"Why are you here?"

"I have pledged my allegiance to you and now I need something in return."

"Pledged your…what?!" David stood and –with a single dark look sent his way- realised that manners cost nothing and a lack of manners might cost him a great deal. He sat down again and dredged up some courtly manner from somewhere. "Regina…you allied yourself with me?"

"Would you rather the alternative?" Regina let out a huff of effort and clunked the bowl of beaten eggs down on the counter. She leaned there a little heavier than she should have and David watched her intently.

She really _was_ pale.

She was good with makeup, but he could see the evidence of the full on luggage set she had under her eyes and her cheekbones stood out giving her an almost gaunt appearance.

"No, but…what difference does it make? Who would know? I'm not _giving_ you anything for this supposed allegiance when you still haven't offered help to me for bringing Emma and Snow back."

Regina rolled her eyes and looked down at the bowl again. As if pondering if she was up to the task of lifting it.

"It's all over the town." Regina told him while she calculated. "I'm your ally. Everybody knows."

"Whuh…how could it be all over the town if even I didn't know?!"

"I'm sure entire libraries can and have been filled with things you don't know, dear." Regina favoured him with a narrow eyed smile. "It's all over town because I wanted it that way. Have you not noticed a dramatic decrease in the demands on your time? Everyone knows they can come to me to help with their grievances now and I shall pass on the important ones to you, of course." She pointed at him with the spatula and held her hand over the pan, judging the heat coming off it.

"I've got _you_ to thank for that?" David rebelled at the idea of having to thank her for anything…though he had the sneaking suspicion he would very likely beg for that omelette if she demanded it of him. He knew, evility aside, that she was an excellent cook.

"Did you think your fumbling attempts at ruling were actually making headway, shepherd king?" Regina looked over at him as if genuinely curious.

"Well…no." David admitted after a moment. "I kind of just thought people had realised I wasn't very good at all…this." David waved his arm around to encompass everything.

"Oh, I think that played a part too." Regina poured the egg mix into the pan and stirred in leftover potatoes, some ham, she'd found some peas that didn't seem too questionable as well. She turned down the heat and glared at it, daring it to defy her culinary skills, stick to the pan and burn.

"Different isn't it?" She cast a sideways glance at him, though it seemed more out of paranoia to make sure he was still across the room rather than any malice. "Actually running a body of people rather than simply being a figurehead. Must be quite the shock for the prince to finally inherit his kingdom."

"What do you want, Regina?"

"I told you. Your allegiance. Your…help." She looked like the word nearly choked her.

"My help?" David frowned at her. "The great and powerful witch of Storybrooke needs the lowly shepherd's help?"

"Great and powerful," Regina leaned back against the counter and pointed her spatula at herself then at him, "lowly shepherd, it seems you've grasped all the salient points."

"Cut the crap, Regina. You're the one on the quest for redemption, not me. I'll not be surprised in the slightest when you revert to your old ways."

Her jaw clenched and he realised –bizarrely- that he was glad to see the flash of fire in her dark eyes. He had been…worried for her. He frowned at that. No, that couldn't be right. Worried what she might be up to. Yes. That was right. Probably.

"You know it's funny, in a way, my trying to good is what got me into this mess. Both times." She turned back to the pan and seemed prepared to leave it at that.

"Alright," David gave into her and played along, "I'll bite, tell me how you're really just misunderstood."

"Oh, I'm steeped in blood, Charming. Rivers of it ran from my claws, as well you know, but there have been times when my title should have just been 'Queen'." She managed a smile of sorts.

Busying herself with the omelette, she worked the spatula under the edges and made sure it wasn't burning. She turned to him suddenly and looked him right in the eye.

"You fought the dragon with no training at all, didn't you?"

"Maleficent?" David frowned.

"No, the other dragon, the one George bought you to kill for him."

David's jaw clenched when she managed to even make his sacrifice for his mother seem so cheap and tawdry.

"Yeah. Luck and quick reflexes played a part but I survived and the dragon didn't."

"You also faced trolls with Snow, did you not?"

"I did. I knew my way around a sword by then. They didn't breathe fire so that was a bonus too." He smirked in a –well- charming way and she mimicked it through reflex. Years of pretending to have human emotions.

"So…you are a somewhat accomplished slayer of ravening beasts." She looked down at her shoes for a moment and seemed disappointed.

"I went up against you enough times and managed to fail so I suppose it's all in the perspective."

David actually regretted his snide remark when she flinched and tried to cover it by tossing her head and shaking her hair back. She hauled on her smirk before he could apologise and spoke with that cruel malice he had come to know so well.

"No. No you didn't. If I'd ever taken an interest in you –a serious interest- I'd have had your skin for a new saddle." She shrugged a shoulder.

"Really? Then why didn't you?"

"Simple; I wanted Snow to suffer. Killing you quickly would not have given her the depth and range of soul crushing anguish that I wished upon her." Regina shrugged elegantly and turned back to the pan, minding her cooking. She seemed at best indifferent to David's jaw grinding rage and at worst immune to it.

"Still!" She rounded suddenly and David flinched despite himself. "That's not why I'm here."

"Yes, I assume there's a point to all this."

"I have need of you. Your skills." She clarified with the expression of someone trying to make themselves feel better and failing miserably.

"Again, why should I help you?"

"Because I can't do it myself."

It was her tone of voice, the smallness, the vulnerability in it that caught him unawares. Not because he could see it easily, she was a master manipulator and he'd have suspected a trick, but she was still trying to hold her mask in place. The horrid queen manipulating the good prince, but the mask was slipping, cracking. He could see under it and –whatever was looking back- wasn't the Evil Queen, it was afraid.

"Whale, when he experimented with the hearts to…to cheat death, he picked several hearts from my collection. I suppose to increase his chances of success." Regina licked her lips and framed her next words with a forced calm. "Unfortunately for all of us, one of those hearts was not strictly…human."

"What does that mean?"

"Do you know the tale of Jekyll and Hyde?" Regina seemed to switch subject and David narrowed his eyes.

"Yeah…vaguely." He shrugged. "It's fiction. From this world. Man turning into a monster, a mad scientist and all that."

"The book that story was written in, is as fictional as the stories in Henry's book are. Jekyll and Hyde may be figments of imagination in _this_ world, but I assure you that they –he- was very real in ours." Regina looked caught in a memory for a moment, haunted. "He's the only monster I have ever feared."

David went very still at that announcement. There was no bravado, no machinations, this was the complete and unvarnished truth. David knew it because he had never seen it from her before.

"What?"

"He was huge." Regina turned back to her cooking and shimmied the omelette in the pan. Judging it done, she folded it in half and flipped it onto a plate. Carrying it over to David, she set it in front of him with some cutlery and even went so far as to pour a glass of juice for him.

Orange, but she doubted she'd find anything to do with apples in this house.

"Huge and massive and dark and…_terrifying_. His skin was coal black, his hair a mane more suited to a beast and his eyes a lurid glowing green. That grin," Regina bared her teeth as if to try and illustrate, fully snared in the past, "from ear to ear. His head seemed to split in half with it. Such terrible strength in those jaws. He could bite a grown man's head off. In a single bite. He did it right in front of me to…well, to impress me."

David shovelled food into his mouth and watched her with rapt fascination. Fear. He had never seen it in Regina's face before. He'd seen her afraid _for _people; Henry and Daniel but never afraid _of_ anything or anyone. He would have thought he would have enjoyed it. To see her brought down a peg or two but to see her then, this self-possessed woman of such astounding confidence and gravitas shiver like ice water had been dripped down her spine…well, it kind of made him want to hide under the bed.

"I don't get it." He shrugged after a moment, trying not to show how affected he was. "Your kingdom was plagued by nothing. The ogres never dared bother you, dragons wouldn't even fly over it and now one man eating monster makes you shake in your ridiculously overpriced boots? Woman, you didn't even blink at your own execution. It is almost enviable how untouchable you are and you're trying to sell me on you being _afraid?_ Regina, when your feet hit the floor in the morning, the Devil says 'oh, shit, she's awake!' you're going to have to do better than trembling hands."

Regina frowned at him a second and then looked down, seeing the way her arms shivered as she leaned against the counter. She shoved herself upright and shook her hands as if trying to rid herself of pins and needles. She folded them over her chest with a thud and glared at him.

"What could this beast possibly have done to frighten you?"

"He was courting me."

David blinked. Oh…kay?

"He came to my lands seeking a worthy mate. Apparently he had travelled far and wide and through MANY women before he found himself at my feet. He looked into my black heart and saw a female that could…'keep the pace'." Regina tried to speak with a cold detachment but it wasn't working. She'd never seen so much blood before she'd seen it dripping from Hyde's maw. "He thought we'd be a good fit."

"Oh, a match made in heaven." David agreed and finished his half of the omelette. "Why'd you release such a fine catch?"

"You know," Regina held up her finger as if just suddenly coming to the realisation, "it's a toss up between all of the Blackguards he ate and all the gifts he made of girls that matched Snow's description." Regina leaned back a little and tapped her finger against her lips, studying the ceiling and trying to decide. "I can't rightly recall which was the dealbreaker though."

"You mean you couldn't control him."

"_He_ couldn't control him." Regina snapped. "You may think I'm madder than a bag of cats but even back then I was JUST sane enough to know that setting fire to people for kicks and dancing in time to their death throes wasn't required of the leader of a country and that putting down mad dogs that threatened _everyone_ was." Regina sucked in a deep breath and composed herself.

"Needless to say, he didn't take my rejection well, apparently he was going to kill, rape and eat me. In that order if I was particularly lucky. I suppose it's unfortunate for all concerned that he didn't succeed, hmm?" It was the blasé way that she said it. The acceptance of such a fate that got to David.

"Don't say that. Even you don't deserve that."

"Was that…compassion?"

"Indigestion." David coughed. "Won't happen again."

"See to it that it doesn't." Regina looked more thrown by that than anything else.

"So," he cleared his throat and tried to steer the conversation back to more comfortable topics like death, mayhem and murder, "you tore his heart out."

"Oh, it wasn't as easy as all that." Regina managed a hollow laugh. "He led me on a merry chase across all the realms, from one end of the Enchanted Forest to another. His shapeshifting meant he could pass completely unnoticed amongst the ranks of yours and George's soldiers and I never did see what his other face was. When I finally did corner him, it took over a hundred arrows, half of my Blackguards and a measure of my blood to get to him." Regina's fingers lifted to her lip and the faint scar there. "He dislocated my jaw. With his thumb. Fortunately, I didn't need to speak the spell to tear his heart out. It took both hands."

"Half the Blackguard? Your infamous fighting force, five of which stormed mine and Snow's palace successfully? THOSE Blackguards?"

"Didn't you ever wonder why I only brought five? The rest died from injuries sustained in that final battle and…I didn't replace them because after I'd managed to vanquish this hellish beast I returned to find you had won the war against George and were enjoying your nuptials with the ever loving Snow and I…well, everyone knows what I did." Regina propped a hip against the counter and heaved a sigh, seeming suddenly exhausted. Charming wanted to offer her a chair if he'd thought she'd accept.

"Why on earth did you keep it?!" The question burst from him and she shot him a look that told him she thought even he should know her better than that.

"Vengeance, of course. All of that power, power the likes of which you can scarcely comprehend in the palm of my hand and in such a handy vessel to replace the heart of someone else say…Snow's? Yours? Hell, at one point I considered my own."

"That's crazy."

"It has been a long time since anyone accused me of being a well balanced individual." Regina shrugged. "I was angry and scared and I felt threatened. Bad things happen when I feel threatened…unfortunately, it seems that there isn't really a time limit on when such things occur and who they are bad for."

"Alright, so what's all this got to do with me?" David pushed his plate and the leftover omelette towards her and she looked down at it, puzzled for a moment. She frowned and shook her head, pushing it back at him.

"It's for you."

"You're not going to eat?"

"I'm not hungry."

"Could you sit down then?" David knew she had to be hungry. She looked starved. He'd never seen her sick. Never. She looked it now.

"I don't plan on staying long."

"You've been here for over half an hour. Sit down before you fall down."

She glared at him.

"Killing a dragon, defeating another and winning a war is an impressive resume. You, of all people, might be able to defeat Hyde." Regina said instead.

"You think Whale put Hyde's heart in someone? Another dead body?"

Regina looked at him then and he knew.

"Daniel."

She nodded but he noticed she never said his name.

"The process Jekyll used to turn into Hyde is chemical. In the blood. There is no blood in an enchanted heart but Jekyll's process was done with science, not magic. Science like Whale's and…there's a chance…" Regina seemed unable to finish and she looked at Charming almost pleadingly.

"We can't risk that kind of evil loose here. Hyde makes Rumplestiltskin, George, Maleficent and I look like the Maine chapter of the Women's Institute. He'd flatten this town in an afternoon and…evil consumes evil. It doesn't vanquish it. You're a hero. Father to the Saviour, you're bound to be useful for something other than standing around and looking dashing." She tried to jab at him but her heart wasn't in it.

"So, Daniel could change? Turn into Hyde?"

"Or something like him." Regina looked away from David and rubbed at her eyes. "This is my favour, this is what I ask of you. If…when…the time comes, could you, would you…gods!" Regina looked down and covered her eyes with her hand, it did nothing to stop her tears slipping past anyway.

"You really do love him, don't you?" David truly realised it then. "Despite everything you've done, the lives you've taken, the dreams you've destroyed, the pain and anguish you rained down on us all for decades and you can still love? Wholly and completely, you love him. That's how you did it, isn't it? True Love's kiss took his pain away. Brought him back to you."

"Oh, don't you fret, Charming." Regina dropped her hand and looked away from him still, blinking furiously with red rimmed eyes. "The Evil Queen shall not get her happy ending. I'll suffer for a time yet."

"What do you mean?" David frowned. "Where are you going?"

"Nowhere." Regina lied then. It was easier to see now that she'd finally told him the truth. "The curse is over though, we all start aging again. Soon I'll be old and frail enough to shove in front of a bus without much trouble. Even you'll manage it." She winked at him.

"Regina, don't talk like that!"

"Listen to me," she said suddenly, ignoring his bout of compassion or indigestion or whatever, "I don't know if I can help when the time comes. Not even to restrain him I just know…I can't do it myself. I can't watch him die again. I just can't."

David was quiet for long moments and picked at the remains of the omelette. He suddenly didn't feel very hungry at all.

"How long do we have? Before he turns?"

"I don't know." Regina shrugged a little helplessly. "He may not at all. That's the worst thing, I don't know for sure but…" Regina thought back to her conversation with Daniel, the darkness rising in him, that comment about _prawns_.

"_Such a violent thing you are, pretty one, snapping their backs, off with their head! Rip off the legs, swallowing them whole, hoping they're dead."_

Regina still couldn't eat prawns after she had seen Hyde eat them too…he had mistaken human beings for prawns, of course, but it's easily done when your trolley's missing and you're decidedly not on it.

"There have been signs." She finally spoke.

"Signs?" David huffed out a breath and clattered his fork onto his plate. "Signs?! If we're to murder your fiancé, I'm going to need something a bit more concrete than 'SIGNS'!"

"He's not my fiancé! We are not together, we cannot be together." Regina shook herself and regained control with an ease that was a little frightening. "Besides, I'm not saying you have to snatch up your sword and run off to slay the horrific monster I'm saying that there could be one in the offing. Be on your guard."

"Well, we're going to have to monitor him."

"From a distance, preferably." Regina agreed.

"Or with someone who can get away fast enough if he turns."

"Which leaves…?"

"You, Ruby…the faeries…" David rapidly ran out of candidates.

"NOT the faeries!" Regina spoke with an alarming vehemence. "Her high and mightiness the Blue Superior would kill Daniel if she even got a hint that he could turn. I can do without Blue's particular brand of idiocy. You should know that better than anyone."

"Idiocy? Blue was smart enough to beat you with the wardrobe." David frowned at her.

"The wardrobe?" Regina looked at him like he was dense. Well, denser than usual.

"Blue told us how to build the wardrobe, how to get Emma to safety."

"Ye-es, and my Blackguard injured you before you could follow her through." Regina pondered it a moment. "I have to admit, I was surprised at that. I had assumed that I would find all three of you there. Even wounded, I have known you to accomplish annoying feats of strength. Carrying your wife and newborn would not, I had thought, have been beyond you. I suppose Snow was too weak to be carried? Too much bloodloss? The curse repaired the damage done by such things, the same way it healed your wounds…why are you looking at me like that?" Regina realised belatedly that she had been rambling and he'd never seen that from her before.

Well, this was the longest conversation they'd ever had with one another. She was surprised they hadn't run out of things to say yet.

"I couldn't have followed Emma through."

"Why not?" Regina knew he wasn't talking about her Blackguard getting in his way.

"Because," he gritted between clenched teeth, "there was only enough magic in the tree for one person to go through."

"Snow should have called you the eighth dwarf; Stupid."

"What?!"

"Did you ever note the SIZE of said tree? It was centuries old! Even with the task of crossing worlds, that tree could have taken more than one. It's called the Enchanted Forest for a reason. Most of the trees in there were magical to a fairly serious degree. Did you not wonder where Gepetto found the wood for his darlingest little muppet?"

"Blue said there was only enough magic for one crossing…" David spoke with the air of someone who could hear the penny dropping from way up high.

"Mother Inferior is an idiot." Regina dismissed it, not quite noticing the shift she was setting off in Charming's world view. "That tree would have had the power for two crossings at least, if you'd built a _door_ with it you could have probably have managed…four or five? At a time?"

"You mean," David surged to his feet, "Emma didn't have to come here alone? We could have been a family? We could have told her our stories and helped her be the Saviour? She didn't have to give up Henry?"

Regina's jaw clenched. Give up, what a charming euphemism for washing her hands of her responsibility. It was funny how Regina was the only one who remembered that Emma had given up the right to Henry a decade ago.

"Well, let's face it, if Emma had grown up with you, Henry probably wouldn't exist." She sobered at that thought. David too.

"Small favours." He murmured and looked down at her hand gripping the counter, it was white knuckled. He felt anger rise in him. "No! This is a lie! A trick."

"What _possible_ motive could I have for…? Never mind, will you help me or not? If the time comes."

"Why should I when you're up to your old tricks again? Falling back into bad habits."

"WHAT TRICKS?!" Regina nearly screamed at him, her temper at an end. "I have come here to you –a hated enemy- and asked you to help me MURDER the love of my life. A man who I love and will love wholly and truly, with a passion that can barely be restrained by the human heart, for the rest of my LIFE! It will shatter me beyond saving and you have the _gall_ to accuse me of tricks!? Believe me, if there was any other way to take this from him, to suffer the pain in his stead I would do…do it in…heartbeat…"

"Regina?"

Regina saw a wavering shape that might have been David move towards her. Her hand went to her chest and fisted in her shirt. She felt it pounding into her. The magic. The curse. No. Not yet. Just a little while longer. She had to see this through.

"Regina!" His voice seemed very far away and she wavered on her feet.

"Can't…I can't…"

Regina's eyes rolled back in her head and her legs buckled. She was too unconscious to note the surprise on David's face when he lunged to catch her before she hit the floor.


	10. Chapter 10

**Okay, so it's not technically Friday still where i am, but i WAS working til after midnight so i updated when i could :D**

**Wow, again, for the response, guys. Your reviews and thoughts are always appreciated and a great source of amusement for me :). I will respond to folks with accounts with PM's and drop a few notes here for others. **

**One thing though, NO SPOILERS!**

**I'm Scottish, as in, no American TV to be had. I have to go online to see the new series and i haven't yet. To be honest, i'm probably going to wait until the entire new series is finished before i watch it all. Someone reviewed the other day and it was a bit spoilery and i was like NOOOOOOOOOOOO 80**

**So please don't. **

**Yeah, so, general consensus from peeps last update was 'ermergherd he was courting her!'...boy, are you guys in for a shock. We find out more about Hyde and Regina's relationship later on, you will 'see' him later on -though I will point out that Whale took more than one heart. So don't bet the farm just yet. Love triangle anyone? B]**

**As for what inspired my Hyde's look, y'all need to google image search 'Eren Titan' the big naked bastard with the grin is what i based my Hyde on. **

**I like reading everyone's reviews but i'm always surprised when folks react wildly to things because i'm so much further on in the story than y'all. So the stuff i'm mired in writing right now is MILES ahead of what you're reading so i'm suffering a bit of a disassociation**

**Now, without further ado, the next installment. **

**Read, enjoy, review. **

**Chapter 10 – Breaking **

"Regina?"

Regina's eyes fluttered and she groaned.

"Regina, can you hear me?"

"Not so loud." Regina was surprised at the croak of her voice. She blearily opened her eyes and found Rachel's wholesome face floating over hers. She grimaced and pushed her away, moving to sit up. Her brain throbbed in her skull and her eyes widened. She lay hurriedly back down. "That was a terrible idea."

"Yeah, it was." Rachel sat closer again and moved onto the real torture. Sending a blinding beam of light into Regina's eyes to check her responses.

Sluggish, but getting better.

"Do you know where you are? Can you tell me what day it is? Where does it hurt? How many fingers?"

"Ow." Regina pushed Rachel back. "Stop that."

"Regina…"

"I'm in Snow's loft, on the couch, facing a South- Westerly direction. It's Tuesday. I am accustomed to pain and I imagine you've always had eight fingers and two thumbs." Regina risked sitting up again, paranoia demanding at least a little verticality so as to better defend herself. Rachel moved out of the way with an irritable resignation when Regina swung her legs carefully over the side of the couch, fully prepared to watch her land flat on her face and let that teach her a lesson.

"Ugh." Regina dropped her head into her hands rather than try and stand. Finally, a little sense.

"What's wrong with her?"

"Don't sound so worried, Charming." Regina mumbled around her hands. "Falsehood clashes horribly with your nobility."

"She's fine." David turned away and heaved a sigh.

He felt a slow unclenching in his chest and pondered that a moment. He really shouldn't be worried for her. She was a psychopath. He'd be well shot of her if she just keeled over dead but that would be so…so…anticlimactic. If she was going to die, he knew they'd both prefer it be in a suitable show of drama and –preferably- pyrotechnics. Anything less would just make all the turmoil up until now seem…pointless.

"And still in the room." Regina needled him.

"Next time I'll let you fall on your head. Maybe knock some decency into you."

Rachel cut in when Regina lifted her head, she might be barely conscious but it appeared sheer meanness came as naturally to the woman as breathing.

"Low blood sugar, I think." She drew Regina's attention to herself and decided to consider how unwise that might have been later. "When was the last time you ate?"

"Breakfast."

"Alright, when was the last time you ate something more substantial than the sweetener in your coffee?"

Regina sat with her head in her hands and appeared to ignore them.

"Regina?" Rachel actually reached out and prodded her with a finger to make sure she hadn't passed out again.

"I'm thinking!" She flinched away from Rachel's touch like it was caustic and shot a glare at the younger woman. "Sunday. Probably."

"Regina, it's Tuesday!" Rachel waved her arm wildly. "What the hell?!"

"I've had other things to contend with!" Regina hissed at her. The yelling was doing nothing to help her head. She felt like she'd drunk a barrel full of her infamous cider and then been trampled by a vindictive marching band in the night. "It's been a hectic week."

"Doing _what?!"_ Rachel demanded. "Sitting in that big house of yours stagnating, NOT doing any Mayoral or maternal type things and otherwise trying to avoid any other form of human contact?"

"I've had other projects." Regina muttered and went back to her head cradling. Good grief, her _hair_ hurt.

"Well, you're next project is lunch. Charming, make yourself useful and cook something." Rachel rounded on their host, who looked indignant at her commanding tone but moved off to do as he was told anyway.

"No." Regina grumbled.

"Regina, so help me, you will eat something or I will knock you the hell out and drag you to the hospital by your hair and I have a WEALTH of experience when it comes to hair dragging." Rachel folded her arms over her chest and Regina arched a brow then changed her mind when expressions hurt her face.

"I've seen him cook. I'm not going to be able to eat anything he gives me. I have no desire to get salmonella on top of everything else."

"Hey!" David rounded on her. "I'm a good cook!"

"Compared toooo…?" Regina taunted him.

"Granny's it is then!" Rachel interjected a little desperately.

"Oh, that's a wonderful idea." Regina managed a caustic smile. "They can string me up by the little bell over the door so the kicking of my throttling self can set it to jangling. Perhaps after that I can be in the Meatloaf Surprise." Regina rubbed at the space between her eyes. "I hope I give them all food poisoning."

"Everyone knows that the surprise is that it's vegetarian." Rachel was getting less and less impressed with her reluctant patient and she hadn't been all that dazzled to begin with.

"I'll go and get some takeout." David decided he'd had enough and the chivalry in him wouldn't let him bodily throw either woman out the door no matter how irritating they were in their own ways.

He yanked on his jacket and –despite being somewhat wary of Rachel- had to smirk at her no fear, no nonsense attitude when it came to dealing with Regina.

"Her majesty will have something deep fried and sugary."

"I most certainly will no…"

"When I said 'sedate' I really meant 'high five your face with a brick'." Rachel told her and Regina scowled at her but remained silent.

"You want anything?" David directed that at Rachel and the good doctor dazzled him with a sudden smile.

"I could do horrific things for some of Granny's broth and a white roll. There's money in my purse." She nodded to her handbag on the island counter. Only her medical kit was open on the coffee table.

"I got it." David shrugged it off and headed for the diner.

Regina watched him go with a weather eye, considered Rachel, discounted her and then rose to her feet.

Rachel sighed and picked Regina up off the floor and set her back on the couch.

If at all possible, Regina looked paler than she already had and she sagged back in her seat, not even protesting when Rachel measured her pulse and then viciously (and maliciously, Regina was certain) stabbed her finger to take a blood sugar test.

"Good gravy." Rachel muttered at the readout and lanced Regina with a glare that the queen didn't even have the grace to flinch at. Her eyes were closed and she was trying to breathe through the nausea that assailed her from all sides instead.

It had been intermittent the last couple of days and Regina had been so bad at times that she wouldn't have been able to keep food down even if she'd wanted to.

"Alright. Enough." Rachel snapped her medical case closed to get Regina's attention and met the other woman's weakened glare with a furious one of her own. "What the hell is going on?"

"Low blood sugar. You said so yourself." Regina's voice was barely above a croak.

"You look like death." Rachel snapped at her. "Cut the bull and come clean with me. What have you done to yourself?"

"I haven't done anything." Regina tried to sit up straighter when the slouching began to make her back ache. She nodded to Rachel in thanks when the girl helped her. Rachel was a lot stronger than she looked.

"David said you were pretty worked up before you fainted."

"Panic attack then." Regina shrugged.

"Yes, because Evil Queens are known for their flighty and delicate constitutions." Rachel rolled her eyes. "I'll bet you've never fainted a day in your life."

"You don't know me very well." Regina sank deeper into the cushions on the couch and tried to surreptitiously draw the blanket David had put over her back around her. She felt every single one of her years and a few decades older than that too. If this was what being old felt like, she had no desire to live through it.

Good thing she had always known she'd die young.

"I know enough. I can feel it. The magic in you. There's something wrong. Terribly wrong."

"It's nothing."

"So we're admitting there's an 'it'. This is progress."

"I loathe you." Regina glared at her.

"Kapwang." Rachel traced the trajectory of the insult to her body with her finger and then showed it bouncing harmlessly away. She waited stoically. Staring Regina down. Doctor trumps queen, she reminded herself. Several times.

"Perhaps side effects from not using magic." Regina finally allowed. "I haven't had it in any real sense for nearly thirty years, to suddenly be chock full of it again…there are repercussions."

"So…this is like not weight training for months on end and then suddenly trying to bench your personal best?" Rachel tried to understand. She had grown up with magic, literally having it part of her own body, but she had never learned more than how to heal with her hair and that stupid little song.

"Magic is sacrifice." Regina said quietly. "Anyone who tells you differently is lying or a fool."

"The faeries use fairy dust." Rachel had to point that out.

"Diamonds. They sacrifice diamonds for their power and feed it to the magic to get what they want. Magic is magic, dear, neither good nor bad, but there is always a price."

"You sound like Rumplestiltskin."

"The imp is correct. Rumple and I are the best so our price has always been the greatest. He pays his by being the Dark One."

"And how do you pay yours?"

"Hearts. Death. Murder. Mayhem." Regina shrugged her shoulder. "Rumple and I take our sacrifices from others and offer them up. Which has the side effect of making us the baddest of the bad."

"But you're not doing that anymore."

Regina cast her a look and Rachel frowned. Thinking it over. Regina was telling her everything she needed to know but the queen wasn't going to make it easy for her. Rachel just had to think about it and she'd come to the…

"Daniel." She said suddenly. "You said the cost –the price- for breaking the Old Laws, the ones about life and death, would be huge. A price that _you_ paid. Not Daniel."

Regina, despite herself, smirked at the girl's cleverness.

"Eating a death curse is on _hell_ of a sacrifice. I was awarded," her eyes closed and she pressed her lips together as if savouring the taste of her favourite wine, "_such_ power for it."

"Power that you haven't used."

Regina shook her head.

"So…you've got all this power in you, lighting you up like freaking Times Square on New Year's, and you're not letting it out?"

"Close enough."

"Regina, that's stupid!" Rachel nearly yelled and gentled her tone when Regina winced. "You're going to kill yourself!"

Regina didn't answer, just sank back into the couch and closed her eyes again.

"How long?" Rachel demanded again, louder, when she didn't get her answer the first time. "How. Long?"

"Months. Weeks." Regina opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling. "Days. I won't see Henry's next birthday."

Rachel rocked back and blinked. She looked about herself as if expecting the answer to the problem to be daubed on the walls. She turned back to Regina and then a fierce look came over her.

"Well, start using magic then."

"I promised Henry I wouldn't."

"Oh, come ON!" Rachel threw her hands up. "I can't say I know Henry very well but I'm pretty sure he doesn't want you to DIE! He obviously doesn't know what this is doing to you. Explain it to him and…"

"He'll say it's a trick." Regina never raised her voice. Didn't even glare at Rachel. Just spoke quietly with the utter surety that she was right.

"He'll see." Rachel argued. "Anyone can see you're not well and I think this is going to get a whole lot worse for you before you finally go toes up. How are you going to look him in the eye and tell him that you could save yourself but you just _won't?_"

"Simple. I won't. He doesn't see me now. I hardly think he's going to want to in the near future. I'll be gone before he realises."

"And what has he done to deserve such cruelty?!" Rachel demanded. "How could you lay that guilt at his feet? Rob him of his chance of having a mother in his life?"

"He has a mother!" Regina snapped, sitting up ramrod straight, her rage galvanising her for a moment. "He has made that abundantly clear to anyone who will listen. The Saviour rescued him right out from under me and I can't…there is no undoing it."

"Oh, the woman that squatted him into this world and then signed him away? _That_ mother? The one who has sweet eff-A parenting experience, living with her parents who ALSO have the nurturing skills of a T-Rex with gout?" Rachel saw the weak spot and stuck the scalpel in. "None of them know him like you do. None of them RAISED him. He might seem happy with them now and Emma might be his mom but _you_ are the one he called mommy and –pretty soon- he's going to realise that you're his home."

"I do believe you're projecting, dear."

"And I do believe you're abandoning the boy you promised you wouldn't."

Regina flinched as if struck and Rachel steeled herself against it. She couldn't really say why she was so hell bent on saving Regina, or perhaps she didn't want to admit the reasons to herself, but she was determined to do it by any means necessary.

"I'm not abandoning him." Regina frowned at her. "I'll make it seem like I left Storybrooke, before the time comes, he'll think that I've moved away to give him peace. Part of my…redemption."

"Oh, for the love of…!" Rachel would have throttled Regina quite happily then but she'd taken the whole Do No Harm thing pretty seriously up until now. "Redemption? What good is that if you're dead? I'm sure he'd prefer you alive and suffering from some questionable morality than dead. You're his mother."

"And how long can I keep it up?!" Regina snarled at her. "How long can I be 'mommy' rather than the Evil Queen? Because _that's_ what he wants." She shook her head.

"I don't know how long I can maintain the façade. I don't know how long I can pretend to be good. You don't GET IT. It's so EASY for everyone else. They get to be normal. They get to go through their mindless cattle lives humming and hawing to themselves in a mediocrity of morality that's never challenged and they just NATURALLY do good. They're content to just be." Regina was panting now, the effort costing her but she forged on. She'd started and now it was just pouring out of her.

"It pains me to be alive. I am in AGONY. Every waking moment of every single day, the weight of my past presses down on me and now –with the curse broken- I must face it. Every heart in the vault, every voice crying out in the dark of the night, every village burned and trust betrayed. Every. Single. One." Regina began to shake, her voice trembling and Rachel wanted to stop her but she just didn't know how.

"It's so easy for you. You don't know how good it feels, to make other people hurt instead of you. To put all of that onto someone else but you learn too late. You learn for every time you put it into someone else, their pain comes back on you along with every bit of your own until it can crush you and that's what's happening to me now." Regina sagged in her chair and stared at her hands like they belonged to someone else. Those hands that had cast so much magic and caused so much pain. "I am dying, inch by inch and pulverised bone by bone. I'm being ground to nothing and I would like –very much- to die before I find someone else to put that on because I wouldn't wish it on ANYONE."

"Not even Snow?" Rachel had no idea what made her ask the question and she could have kicked herself at the flash of stark emotion that went through Regina.

Nobody really knew why the queen had spent decades trying to kill Snow. Why she had cursed an entire world to rain misery on her. A lot of people assumed it was just because she was crazed and had fixated on Snow, but Rachel could see that Regina was right. She was in pain. So much pain. What could Snow have _done_ to wound Regina so deeply?

"No." Regina finally answered. "Not even Snow. My sins are my own."

"That's bullshit and you're a coward!" Rachel snapped at her. "You suited leather and lace a lot better than you do martyrdom. I've heard a lot of things from a lot of people with regards to the Evil Queen and I've yet to hear anyone call you yellow." Rachel jumped to her feet and began to pace, unable to contain the fiery energy that burned her with her anger.

"Suicide is the coward's way out. Vlad was there at your execution, he told me how you didn't even flinch. Where's that Regina? If she was the Evil Queen and you say you still are, why go so quietly into the night? You can't have it both ways. Only good people think they deserve to die."

"And live on as _what?_" Regina demanded. She wanted badly to stand toe-to-toe with Rachel and yell right back at her but she knew she was up to neither. "Go back to being that cold, unloving, unlovable psychopath? That's not living! Either way, I lose Henry and that's the only thing keeping me here."

"And Daniel?"

All the air rushed out of Regina as harshly as if Rachel had kicked her in the stomach and she convulsively flinched. Rachel's eyes went wide, thinking Regina was going to start seizing, but she controlled herself with an iron will that proved she was more than capable of surviving this stupid death curse.

"Don't."

Rachel stilled at the tone of that single word. The pain and pleading loaded into it. She might have expected many things from Regina, but never begging.

"Please, just don't." Regina swiped at her eyes. She shuddered violently at whatever came to mind when she thought of Daniel and his future. "You're supposed to be one of the good ones. Can you not just let me die in peace?"

"You're gonna die?"

Both women twisted violently to see Henry in the doorway. Neither of them had heard him open the door and he stood there, his school bag hanging halfway down his arms. He had been stopped halfway through the motion of dumping it on the floor when he had realised it was his mom on the couch and what she was talking about with Doctor Towers –Rapunzel- standing over her.

"Henry!" Regina seemed stunned for a moment and then her face, her entire demeanour, softened for him. "When did you get here?"

Rachel had to admit it was a good way of phrasing 'how much did you hear?' but Henry wasn't a fool. Regina, despite all her other faults, was a good mother and had raised her son to be too smart for her own good.

"Right about the time you said you wanted to die in peace." Henry accused her, dumping his bag and running across the room to stand over her. He looked at her, really looked at her for the first time in a long time and something imploded in his chest. He was angry when his voice sounded babyish, cracking halfway through his words. "You're gonna die?"

"I…no. Of course not." Regina shook her head and smiled. "It was a joke. A poor one."

"You're lying!" Henry yelled at her. "You said you wouldn't anymore!"

"Then I suppose that must have been a lie too." Regina looked at him levelly and smirked at him. Not her smile, not the one she kept just for him, but the smirk she made when she won.

"That's not going to work!" Henry was screaming now and he rocked Regina back in her seat with his ferocity. "You can't get me madder than I already am and I'm not running away from you this time! You're supposed to get better! You're supposed to be good! How can you do that if you die?!" When his mom just looked at him, stunned –surprised that he seemed to care- he broke.

"HOW?! TELL ME HOW. TELL ME RIGHT NOW AND DON'T LIE BECAUSE I'LL KNOW IF YOU LIE. I'VE ALWAYS KNOWN BECAUSE YOU'RE MY MOM AND EVEN WHEN YOU WERE EVIL I LOVED YOU AND…and…and that's…not fair…I should hate you and I don't."

Henry dissolved completely into tears, great wracking sobs and did not surrender easily to Regina but Rachel saw she had been right. She'd had no idea what to do when Henry had flown into such a rage. Yell back? Leave him to tantrum it out? Just stand there and take it?

But Regina had known.

She'd had to almost crawl across the couch, every movement costing her, a cold sweat slicking her skin by the time she reached him. She leaned over the arm of the sofa, gripping him by the arms and pulled him to her. He fought her but it was for show, for his pride, just like his mom, and finally only surrendered when she wrapped her arms around him and tugged him into her chest.

Henry broke down completely, his hands fisting in her shirt at her back, sobbing uncontrollably into her neck, falling over the arm of the couch to land almost on top of her. She held him and shushed him, rocking him gently, stroking his hair. Tears streamed down her face unchecked and she looked up at Rachel.

Rachel, not one to back down, looked pointedly at Henry and then back to Regina.

Regina nodded. She knew. She finally got it.

Rachel gathered up her things and made to leave, nearly bowling over Charming laden with food in the doorway.

"You're not staying?"

"I'm not needed anymore." Rachel smiled.

"Oh," David looked in the doorway and his brows rose, "what the hell is going on here?"

"That's between Regina and Henry." Rachel shifted her purse high on her shoulder. "Make sure she eats all of that and I think it would be best if she stayed with someone."

"Really?" Charming didn't look happy about it but he finally heaved a sigh and nodded. "I'll look after her."

Rachel studied him a long moment, her face unreadable and she finally nodded.

"You're a good man, Charming."

"It's David." Charming smiled that goofy smile of his and Rachel seemed puzzled by it more than anything else. It was overtaken by irritation at his next words. "You're not even going to give me a hint as to what I'm walking into?"

"No. Unlike certain crickets, I actually keep my word when it comes to doctor/patient confidentiality."

David rocked back on his heels and held up a paper bag as a peace offering.

"Your soup."

Rachel blinked, thrown and looked at the bag. Shaking her head sharply, embarrassed that she had snapped at a man who really didn't deserve it.

"Keep it, Henry will probably need it more than I will." Rachel shifted awkwardly. "I'm sorry for snapping at you."

"It's okay. Regina has that effect on people." He smiled to let her know he wasn't too serious.

"Just…be gentle with her. Please." Rachel hunched her shoulders in a kind of shrug. "You know, because you're one of the good guys."

"I'll do it because she's Henry's mom." David told her. He sighed. "She might be a crazy psychopath whose only redeeming feature appears to be her dress sense but she raised Henry right. I owe her for that at least."

"Careful, Charming, that sounded almost affectionate."

"Yeah, well…she's kind of a fixture, you know?"

Rachel huffed out a breath like a laugh and nodded. "Actually I do."

"Thanks for coming round. You didn't have to."

"Yes, I did." Rachel looked back at Regina and Henry. "I'm glad I did." She wrestled with herself a moment and then turned back to David. "The prognosis isn't great, she needs rest and time to recoup her strength. You know as well as I do she's going to be a stubborn bitch about this but it _is_ serious. Don't let her fob you off."

"I understand."

David withstood her probing look to make sure he really did and then she nodded, hitching her purse higher over her shoulder.

"See you later, David. Call me if you need me. I'll pick up."

"Will do, Rapunzel."

"I prefer Rachel."

"Alright, Rachel, have a nice night."

"I'd say you too but…we both know it's going to be a bitch." Rapunzel, Rachel, gave him a saluting wave and then turned, disappearing down the hallway, leaving David alone outside his apartment.

"Yes," he agreed, turning to head inside with dinner, "yes she is."

_**The Mills Mansion**_

"Hey, Regina, we're here."

Regina jerked awake, her heart pounding when she found Charming's face hovering over her own, and she forced the fear down. He was no threat to her. Least of all with Henry in the back seat.

"Thank you for driving me home." Regina scrambled at the door, releasing her seatbelt and trying to get away before he started _helping_ her again.

Charming had taken it upon himself to become her nurse maid (Regina highly suspected a certain long haired doctor's intervention). She had –of course- fought him every step of the way. She'd been prevented from actively fleeing, however, when Henry had refused to let go of her and, even now, sat in the back seat watching her with a mixture of endearing worry and volcanic anger. She'd had dinner forced down her neck, an inordinate number of cups of tea and had suffered through s'mores that had been toasted under the grill.

Having Henry wrapped around her had helped. Magic wasn't a purely physical ailment when it turned on its caster, there was an emotional component too. Henry grounding her had gone a long way to granting her a reprieve and letting her keep her dinner down.

She did actually feel better and she should probably thank Charming but it was awkward enough with him acting as her ally and friend without either of them voicing a debt of gratitude between them.

Still, she felt like she had about as much strength and energy as a week old kitten. She was very nearly glad when Charming threw himself out of the truck and around to her side before she could try and negotiate the drop to the ground in four inch heels and a pencil skirt.

"Here." Charming had given up on asking her permission to help about four hours ago and now just went ahead and did it.

She grumbled but didn't fight him when his hands spanned her slim waist and he lifted her down out of the truck. He held onto her until she got a good grip on the door so she didn't land on her ass and then he moved to grab his bag from the car.

He couldn't believe he was doing this. Staying the night with the Evil Queen. Then again, she'd be flat on her face on the floor in the apartment –in an attempt to crawl out the door probably- if he hadn't used his common sense rather than hers and given in to her. She had point blank refused to stay in Snow's loft and had become quite agitated at the mere prospect so David had caved and ordered Henry to gather up some of his stuff, they were off to the Mayor's Mansion.

Henry had immediately bounced off to stuff a change of clothes and some comic books in a bag and David had rounded on Regina demanding to know what was really going on because he had NEVER seen Henry that broken.

Regina had looked him dead in the eye and told him that she might die within the next few days and Henry had found out.

David had been floored. He'd known she wasn't well, people in tip top condition did not keel over in the middle of conversations, but to have her tell him that it was terminal…it had thrown him for a loop.

David hefted his bag over his shoulder, filled with his own change of clothes and –he knew she'd noticed- his sword. He found her at the hood of the car when he returned to her. She had hand-walked her way along the body of the car and seemed to be doing some math to see if she could make it the three steps from the car to the wall of the house for some support.

David, his patience having been reduced to minimal levels when it came to her and her pride, hefted his bag more securely onto his back and scooped her up into his arms.

She squeaked and he resisted the urge to laugh.

"Put me down!"

"We'll be here all night if I wait for you to get strong enough to walk to your own damn front door." David hoisted her higher against his chest when she squirmed and tried to fling herself out of his hold, even though she had to know she wouldn't be able to stand on her own.

So damn wilful. Stupid too.

"Stop that."

Something in his voice made her still and she folded her arms over her chest and sulked.

David rolled his eyes and froze when he felt his hackles go up.

Regina squeaked when he dropped her legs, swung her behind him and drew his sword all in one fluid motion.

"Whoever you are, you have exactly three seconds to get the hell out of here. The Queen is not on the menu tonight." He surprised himself at the low level of the snarl that rolled out of his chest.

Sure, David had sworn to protect her, but he hadn't realised that he'd taken it so seriously.

The shadow on the porch had rocked back on its heels, head tilted back from the sword point levelled at its throat. Twin pinpoints of silver marked pupils in the shadow face and, it wasn't until the sword point drew back a little that it stepped down from the porch and into the moonlight.

"Daniel?" David frowned at the other man, who didn't appear happy to see him in the slightest.

In fact, he looked really, REALLY, pissed off.

"David," Daniel's voice was cold and hard, "you want to explain what's going on here?"

David nearly jumped when Regina tilted forward, her forehead thumping against his back between his shoulder blades. She grumbled into the leather of his jacket.

"And the hits keep on coming."


	11. Chapter 11

**Okay, kiddies, this is super quick because i'm already running late for work and don't even have time to proofread again.**

**The start of this chapter was written last night. That's right, LAST NIGHT! Everybody was so looking forward to a confrontation between Daniel and David and i hadn't actually written one so i went back and put a scene in. Not entirely sure how i feel about it, but here it is, on time, as promised. **

**Now i can go back to writing about runaway horses and mama bears :D**

**More on that later. **

**Again, thanks for all the feedback, it's been ace of you guys to take the time and effort. I hope this chapter lives up to everybody's anticipation (forgive me any errors) and I'll catch you guys either by PM or on Friday. **

**Read, love, review :D**

**Chapter 11 – Cups Running Over**

David eyed Daniel and didn't lower his sword.

Regina's words, her worries over what might lie in Daniel's chest, pounded in David's head. He licked his lips and pushed Regina even further behind him.

Daniel's eyes dropped with the movement of Charming's hand and burned with their intensity when he saw David's hand cup Regina's hip and push her even further behind the bulk of his body.

Daniel's chin tilted up, his jaw tightening to a line of granite. He rolled his shoulders under his jacket and met David's gaze head on. His fists tightened so hard they crackled. He had the obscene urge to wrap his hands around David's head and squeeze until red spurted between his fingers. He muscled it down and watched David.

"Well?" The growl that had taken up residence in his voice made it sound like it belonged to someone else and he gentled himself when he saw a hint of Regina's flinch. "Am I going to get an answer?"

"Nothing's going on." David finally spoke after a long moment of waiting for Regina to chime in. "Just bringing Regina home."

"I can see that." Daniel prowled forward and stopped when David shifted with him, keeping himself between Regina and Daniel. Daniel's head tilted. "Well, this is new. Prince Charming offering to protect the Evil Queen. What _will_ the little villagers say?"

"I don't want any trouble."

"Marvellous." Daniel bared his teeth in something like a smile. "Leave and there won't be any."

"Henry, take your mom inside." David didn't turn to look at his grandson and Henry –despite his pathological need to meddle- wisely kept his mouth shut and scooted forward to take Regina's hand.

"Round the back, Henry." David's arm stretched out to bar them from coming around his side. "Go round back."

"David…" Regina's voice was weak behind him but David still didn't turn, even when her fingers tightened on his sleeve. "Please."

"It'll be fine." David reached blindly back and herded her away. "Let Henry take you inside."

"Right." Regina caught on eventually and looped her arm around Henry's shoulders, trying not to lean too heavily on him as he escorted her around the side of the mansion.

If things went South and –judging by the look on Daniel's face- they might well do, David wanted to put as many obstacles between Hyde-lite and Henry as he could. Bricks, mortar and Regina if at all possible. He knew she would give everything she had to protect her son and –weakened or not- if she had beat Hyde as a monster, she should be able to beat the shadow in Daniel's chest.

If one even existed.

Daniel stretched up on his toes to watch Regina disappear around the side of the house, one arm hugged around Henry and the other around herself, before his gimlet glare filleted David.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing's going on." David finally lowered his sword a little. "You just startled us is all."

"Startled was five minutes ago when all you could see was my shadow, you're afraid of me. Why?"

"Regina and Henry might have forgotten what you're capable of, but I haven't."

Daniel jerked as if David had swung for him and blinked.

"I'm not…I'm no danger to anyone."

"We both know that's not true." David prodded carefully.

If he had to take on monsters at all, he'd have preferred his nine millimetre to be on his hip and perhaps a shotgun on his back for good measure, but his sword had gotten him through enough hellish scrapes in the past not to be discounted. Regina and Henry were out of the way, the Mills Mansion was far enough removed from other homes…he'd been in worse situations.

Now all he needed was for Hyde to show himself.

_If _he was even in there.

David resisted the strong urge to growl. This was ridiculous. Regina's paranoia was infectious. He had only her crazed ramblings to go on and –half the time- she made things much worse for herself than they needed to be. If she just relaxed and acted like a normal person for five consecutive minutes, he'd bet her life would run a lot smoother.

Still, there he was, standing in front of her fiancé, preparing to run him through if his grin was too wide.

"I'm sorry I hurt Henry and I'm even sorrier for hurting Regina but, I swear to you, I would die a thousand times over before I hurt either of them again." Any trace of malice left Daniel and he looked at David with the simple truth in his eyes. He shrugged helplessly. "And I'm one of the few people who knows exactly what he's saying with that statement."

David huffed a laugh despite himself and scrubbed a hand through his hair. He heaved a sigh. He rallied himself to dislike Daniel, to make this easier, but it wouldn't come.

Hell, he couldn't even hate Regina properly anymore.

He did like being David, like the softer aspects of his character, the way he more easily said what he felt, but goddamn that stupid swithering spinelessness of his.

"I believe you," David nodded, "but we both know it wasn't _you_ that tried to throttle the woman you love."

Daniel clenched his jaw and looked away.

"I just want to see her." Daniel couldn't look as he had to speak of it to a nearly complete stranger. "She was to be my wife, does that count for nothing?"

"No. Not for nothing." David felt that treacherous empathy corrode his steely resolve. He'd chew through brick to get back to Snow had they been parted as long as Daniel and Regina had…then again, Snow's meltdowns didn't come with a nuclear setting.

"Then let me by. I'm not a warrior, I'm unarmed, I cannot force you to step aside but…I implore you…let me see my woman."

David clenched his jaw and fidgeted with the gleaming blade of his sword. He stopped when he realised it might be misconstrued. He shook his head.

"I can't. Not tonight. She's not…she's been through the wringer tonight. She and Henry had a…thing."

"What's he done to her now?"

"He hasn't done anything! He's _never_ done anything to deserve being made to think he was crazy!" David snarled suddenly and then hauled himself under control again. He couldn't get mad around Daniel. Not if there really was a monster under his skin just waiting to come out and play.

"He's one of the only people that can hurt her."

"And you're the other!" David stepped forward, toe to toe with Daniel and looked him right in the eye. He had to look a little up as well. Daniel was about three inches taller than he was. "Do you get it? She's hanging on by a thread. She was scatty enough to begin with and then she brought you back and her control is completely shot! She has no idea what to do with herself, never mind you. She's trying –desperately trying- to believe that her own son can love her and she can't do that with you around. When you're around, all she can see is you. All that's in her heart, is you, all that's in her head, is you. You're her entire world, Daniel, and –tonight- that's not good for her."

Daniel swallowed hard and looked away from David. He looked sick to his stomach and David could identify. He _hated_ playing people and he was nowhere near as good at it as Regina was but…but it had to be done.

"Just give her tonight. Let her be with Henry, let her be his mother again, just for tonight." David shrugged helplessly. "They both need it."

Daniel was staring –glaring- at the path beneath his feet and seemed to turn to stone he was so still. David was on the verge of poking him with his sword to see if he was still conscious when Daniel's head lifted and his eyes _burned._

"Again." The words seethed from him. "Again and again, it's asked of me. To be parted from her, to give her up for the betterment of her. To let her go and live her life and be with someone else, to MARRY someone else, to be SOLD to someone else to fill the BED of someone else, to be anything but mine. Such a cruelty you weigh on me. Such a penance for the sin of loving her." Daniel spun away and paced, tunnelling his fingers through his hair.

"How can it be? How can it be that everyone else gets their true love? How can it be that True Love absolves all past mistakes bar _hers_?!" Daniel whipped his arm out, pointing to the light burning in the window above them. "She waited in hell for me. For life without me was hell for her. For forty years she tempered herself in the fire of hell, her soul on fire, her heart blackened by it and now –here I am- and you stand between us again?"

"I'm just saying one more night…" David would have given anything for him to stop talking. Anything to let him go to Regina, as if it was that simple, but it wasn't. Daniel going to her now…there was no way it could end well.

"I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE SAYING!" Daniel thundered loud enough to startle birds from their roost in the nearby trees. They applauded into the night sky, clapping into the silence that stretched taut between the two men.

"Now, listen to what I say and think about your next words." Daniel spoke quietly and urgently to David. "Imagine that she's Snow. Imagine having been parted from her, having finally returned to her only to find her shattered and broken. Not evil, because you know that's not in her, she can't be evil. She can do it, any of us can, of course we can, but she in herself is NOT evil. You feel it with every fibre of your damn _body_ that she isn't the monster people paint her to be but she just won't let you close enough to get her to believe that you believe, that you KNOW you'll never stop loving her…and now she's brought someone else into it. Now she's brought in this good man to help her hoard her pain, a good man she knows you won't hurt because you're a good man yourself. She could have gone to Rumplestiltskin, she could have gone to any of her allies, she could have hidden with them but she didn't because she knew you'd tear them apart with your bare hands to get to her."

Daniel stepped closer and pleaded with David, he was past pride now. Past anger or fear or any of those other selfish emotions and all he wanted now was to help Regina.

"And this good man, quite because he is a good man, is protecting her with everything he has because he thinks it's the right thing to do. Even though it's quite possibly the worst thing he could do to her."

"She's not Snow." David finally mumbled.

"No, she isn't, but if she were…would you leave?" Daniel held out his hands. "So ask me again, Prince Charming, virtuous hero, ask me again to leave the woman that needs me. Ask me to abandon her to the likes of your better judgement, because judgement is all she's ever going to get from you. Ask me again to be parted from her one more second than I have to. Ask me again and _know_ that you are wilfully hurting both of us, crushing us with the foolish weight of your good intentions, ask it of me again and I will go. I'll go without a backward glance...but you should also know that you've revealed to me exactly what kind of man you are."

Daniel dropped his hands to his sides and waited.

David pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. He wanted badly to stab something just to make himself feel better…but good men didn't go around doing that sort of thing. That was the kind of shit that had gotten his brother killed.

He looked up at Daniel and opened his mouth, prepared to tell him to leave anyway, but it never happened.

"I'm not going to ask you to leave."

Daniel blinked, clearly surprised that he'd managed to get through to the prince.

"I'm going to ask you to come back."

Daniel frowned.

"It's not my intention to part you. I think –if Regina ever manages to get over herself for two damn minutes- you're probably the best thing for her, but not tonight. Not right now. So, come back. Tomorrow. Come back to her when she can actually face her. You know her, she's so damn proud, she can't stand anyone to see her hurting or weak, least of all someone who matters to her. So, come back in the morning."

Daniel snorted, a rueful and sad smile tugging at his mouth. He shook his head and reached out, clapping his hand on David's shoulder.

"Pretty words, Charming, but I see you for what you are."

Then, true to his word, Daniel skirted David and headed out of the garden. He closed the gate quietly behind him and strode off down the street. His head was down, his hands stuffed in his pockets…and he didn't once look back.

David's jaw clenched.

"Shit."

_**The Next Morning…**_

Regina awoke to knocking.

Her eyes snapped open and her body tensed. She had grown so used to the silence of the huge house that –for a moment- she forgot that she hadn't been alone last night. For the first time in weeks, she'd had other people in the house with her.

One of which was latched around her waist like a limpet.

Another frisson of panic went through her at the weight but it faltered into nothing but befuddlement when she looked down and found Henry beside her.

The knock sounded again.

"Come in." Regina sat up, smoothing her hair as best she could.

"Mmf." Henry grumbled, shifting with her, apparently not interested in releasing her in the slightest.

The door was opened hesitantly and David cautiously poked his head into the room.

"Hi." He said awkwardly.

"Good morning." Regina blinked rapidly.

She wasn't well enough for this. She resigned herself to being vulnerable in his eyes. She'd threaten him with unspeakable torments, so that he never told another living soul, later.

"Good afternoon." He offered her a lopsided smile. "You slept the night away and, uh, Daniel's here."

Regina stilled, tensing again, but was saved from having to supply an immediate reply by Henry.

"What time is it?" He yawned and sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"A little after one."

Regina froze in the act of smoothing down Henry's bedhead and levelled a look at Charming.

"Shouldn't Henry be in school?"

"He didn't sleep last night." David's voice was flat, laying the blame for it fully at her feet. "He was worried about you and couldn't rest unless he was close enough to protect you."

"Oh." What the hell was she supposed to say to that? "Thank you, sweetheart." Regina smiled at Henry and he offered her a faintly embarrassed one in return. They all knew Henry had been the one that had needed protecting, even if Regina had been unconscious, he'd still had faith that she could drive the nightmares away.

Nightmares that were getting worse and worse lately. At least last night they hadn't been in the red room and they'd stopped when he'd come in here to sleep.

Henry didn't appreciate lying in general but he did like that his Gramps had bent the truth a little. Knights weren't supposed to get scared and need to sleep next to their moms in order to keep the bad dreams away.

"Are you hungry?" Regina distracted him. "I can make you some breakfast…or lunch now I suppose."

"I'll make it!" Henry almost hurled himself from the bed, desperate to be of some use. "You're sick. I'll make it. What do you want?"

"Uh…" Regina glanced over the top of Henry's head at David who nodded subtly. He'd help as best he could.

Her mouth twisted at her comments yesterday disparaging his culinary skill. Still…she supposed she owed him some common courtesy for handling Daniel the night before. She dreaded to think what kind of impression Daniel now had of Regina and David's relationship –Charming had sounded more than a little protective and possessive when it came to men lying in wait on her doorstep- but Regina had been up for neither facing Daniel in her condition nor sending him away. David had taken care of it for her while she hid behind him like a child clutching at their father's coattails.

"Surprise me." She smiled at Henry and was engulfed in his arms for a bone creaking hug before he dashed for the door, skipping through it when David held it open for him.

"And Daniel?" David studied her. "I can try and send him away again but he's pretty determined to see you. I don't think I can put him off much longer." Something flickered in his gaze, whatever he had said the night before to get Daniel to leave had sat ill with him.

Oh well, probably best to get this over with sooner rather than later.

"You can send him up." Regina fidgeted with her bedsheets. "Try and keep Henry occupied, this probably isn't going to be pleasant."

"You're going to be okay?"

Regina met David's eyes and considered every layer of that question. So few words and so many meanings. She nodded after a moment.

"I'll be fine." She'd decide later if that was a lie.

"Alright, I'm right downstairs. Shout if you need me."

"Will do." Regina heaved in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

It wasn't even half a minute before the door swung open without even a knock and Daniel strode in.

Wow.

Power, anger, rolled off him in waves. He strode into the room, his gaze landing on her like a physical thing, scouring her from head to toe. He didn't say anything, just prowled to the foot of the bed and glared at her with those dark eyes of his. His chest was heaving with every breath, his eyes burned with emotions so many and swirling she couldn't name them all and his lips were pressed together so tightly they were lined in white.

She had never seen him so furious before.

Then again, he had always been gentle to soothe her in response to her mother's cruelty.

Regina was at a loss for words. He stunned her with his vitality. He was SO alive. He was brimming with it. A crackling energy that she could feel from all the way across the room while he paced back and forth trying to get himself under control.

"What's going on?" Daniel finally turned to her, having whittled his myriad of demands and questions down to something that was almost civil.

Regina looked at him and he could see her plotting. Trying to figure out how best to handle him. How to keep him at a distance.

"And _don't_ lie." He growled.

Again, she chose her words carefully. He was sure he was about to get the truth, but he wasn't entirely certain she was going to be honest.

"Henry and David are making me breakfast."

"That's not what I mean and you know it. You're ill. What's going on?"

"I made a promise to Henry that I wouldn't use magic. It's causing me some problems."

"What kind of problems?" He was at her side in an instant, studying her intently. "You look awful."

"Thanks for the ego stroke." Regina smirked.

"Don't." Daniel sat down heavily on the bed and glared at her. "Don't laugh this off. What's going on?"

"My magic is turning on me."

"You're downplaying this."

Regina felt a flash of irritation when she couldn't just lie to Daniel like she did everyone else. Her masks were slipping. She used to be able to switch between them at will, becoming who she needed to be in order to get what she wanted, but she was becoming known. Even Charming could sense when she was lying now. She had seen it in his eyes yesterday.

"Alright, fine, it very well might kill me. Feel better?"

"Kill you?" Daniel stared at her. "There's a cure, isn't there? Tell me there's a cure." He moved closer, seizing her by the shoulders, forcing her to meet his eyes.

"It's more complicated than that."

"Then you'd best start breaking it down for those of us who are apparently too stupid to know better."

Regina sat back, tugging herself from his hold and glared at him.

"Well?"

"I don't even know where to start. There are so many layers, so many factors, and I may not even be right."

"You mean to tell me that you started playing around with forces so far beyond your ken that you can't even explain them?"

"I didn't say that!" Regina snapped at him. "It's just that trying to explain to…it's like having a whole other sense, being able to see another colour that no one else can, it's like smelling with your ears, you can't really _explain _ that to someone!"

"Try." His voice was so flat and his stance immovable. She wasn't getting out of this.

Regina huffed a sigh and ordered her words. Considering how to explain for long moments.

"It's like…whenever you use magic, it takes from you. There is a sacrificial component to every spell, you have to give something to get something. That's why the ingredients for potions are often so rare, it's because you went to all that effort to make this stew of valuable things that will henceforth be rendered useless, _that_ is what powers the spell. You have to give something to get something."

Daniel settled himself on the bed and watched her. Not saying anything and thinking intently. She might have taught him to read herself, but he'd never been stupid. Once he'd learned the skill, he'd thrown himself into it and had devoured every book on every subject she'd given him. He was incredibly clever. If she was only a good enough teacher, he'd get this too.

"Of course, there comes a point when eye of salamander and the sixth finger of a seventh son just doesn't cut it anymore. As you progress, you try bigger things until no amount of potions are going to be able to fuel your spells…at least, not by themselves." Regina pressed her lips together and studied her hands. "It's like a wooden doll. Starting off solid and being slowly eaten away by the magic. The more that is hollowed out, the more magic can in turn fill that space and the stronger your spells can be because there are more internal reserves to draw from."

"What does this have to do with _not_ using magic? Why is it hurting you now? Shouldn't you just be full of it?"

Regina huffed a laugh. A lot of people had told her she was full of it recently.

"The problem is; I was at the height of my power when I cast the curse. The peak of magical strength. I'd reached the plateau. I would never be able to cast a greater spell than that curse. Never be able to muster more power than that."

"Well…kidnapping the entire world is pretty damn powerful. That's maybe a good thing."

"Arguably." Regina tilted her head. "Of course, using that much power, completely hollowed out the doll. Since then, however, I cast a greater spell. One more powerful than I could handle. I was able to do it because I was desperate, because I had no other choice" Regina plucked at the bed covers and searched for another analogy. How could she properly convey how such fierce emotion had so completely eclipsed her body's weaknesses and limitations? "Like the stories you hear of mothers lifting toppled carriages off their children. They don't feel the damage at the time but they often have dislocated limbs –if they're fortunate- after."

"What does that mean?"

Regina could tell by the look on Daniel's face that he already understood. He knew fine and well what she meant but he needed her to say it. He needed her to make it real before he could set about fixing it.

"It means there's too much magic in my body. No place to put it. It's starting to eat the doll itself to make space." Regina was frustrated at such vague explanations for a very precise thing. She knew exactly what she meant, it was happening to her, she'd have been able to explain it perfectly to Rumple or Maleficent but to anyone who didn't use magic, it was like trying to teach a dog music.

"Well, use it then." Daniel frowned at her. "If you have too much, get rid of the excess."

"It's not that simple."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't think that will help. It's a case of whatever doesn't kill me will make me stronger. Using such a spell drained me and the magic is returning bit by bit but I no longer have the capacity to hold such a well of power. It will start to consume me physically instead of just…spiritually?" That wasn't the right word but it was the closest one she had. "I'll either be able to absorb this much magic, to adjust and improve and be all the stronger afterward, reach a new plateau and survive or I won't. All I can do is wait."

"There's nothing we can do?"

Regina shook her head.

"This is because of me, isn't it?" He looked stricken. Horrified that he had caused her pain.

"This is because of _me._" Regina told him firmly. "I knew the risks, even desperate and maddened with grief, I knew the idiocy of the spell I was conjuring."

"And you did it anyway?"

"Of course." Regina shrugged helplessly and looked away from him. "What else could I do? Let you die? Let you live on in constant agony? A monster not in control of your own actions?" Regina's voice was hoarse for the last. Of course, Whale might have damned him to that anyway.

She made a mental note to flay the doctor when she saw him next. With a _spoon_.

"At the cost of your own life?" He looked angry with her.

"That's how true love works." Regina dredged a smile from somewhere. "You love someone so much that you'd die for them without a second thought."

"So you admit it."

Regina arched a brow at him and he grinned suddenly.

"You love me. Truly."

Regina looked away from him. She didn't look at all happy about it.

"Yes." She said to the window. "Unfortunately, for all concerned, I still love you with everything I have."

Daniel was quiet for a long moment, thinking to himself.

"The spell you cast, to save me, what was it?"

"Why does it matter?"

"I'd like to know. I want to understand this."

Regina heaved a sigh and thought about how to explain. He was supposed to be angry. He was supposed to rail and shout at her. Rage she could handle. This gentleness of his, his want to understand, to help her; it was so alien to her now. At times, she'd rather he hated her. At least that she was familiar with. Her mouth twisted.

"It's a transference spell. I took your pain."

"What did I get in return?"

"My health." Regina managed a wan smile.

Which was why she was so certain she wouldn't even survive to see Hyde again –if it was even his heart that had brought Daniel back. She'd been in good physical condition –a little stressed but that was to be expected- when she had cast the spell to take Daniel's pain and he had been in mortal agony. Switching the two around and then swallowing the magic that had come along with it…survive one of the two? Sure, probably, she wasn't a weakling.

Surviving both at the same time? The odds were not in her favour. Hell, the odds were that she'd have a closed _matchbox_ funeral rather than a closed casket.

"So…you cursed yourself? Horribly."

Regina frowned.

"Well…I suppose it could be seen that way." Regina yelped when Daniel seized her suddenly by her waist and hauled her closer to him so that she was nearly in his lap. Daniel tunnelled his fingers through her hair and drew her mouth up under his.

Contact.

The magic, a sparkling shockwave of it, crackling with white lightning and black sparks, washed out of them. It thundered like a breaking sound barrier, heat and the stench of ozone rolling before it. The entire house shook, windows cracked, car alarms went off.

Daniel braced himself against the headboard, not caring, and deepened the kiss.

The magic finally waned when the explosion of true love died down to something decidedly earthier. He could feel the crackling of energy between them. Magic arced between their bodies like lightning, sparks trailing from her skin when his hand slid under her shirt and splayed against her back.

Regina's wide eyes fluttered closed as she let him kiss her. Her hands had fisted in his shirt, intending to push him away, but had ended up drawing him closer instead. Her lips parted, letting his tongue thrust into her, taking possession of her. Her arms twined around his neck and it was a good few moments before she registered the yelling.

"Mom!" The sound of thundering feet on the stairs. "Mom, are you okay?!"

Regina pulled back from Daniel, her lips burning, and blinked up at him. Completely stunned.

He was grinning at her.

"I thought so."

"You…?"

"Mom!"

Regina twisted around, releasing Daniel and bracing herself when Henry barrelled into her, knocking her backward so that Daniel had to catch them both.

"What was that?" Henry looked up at her, arms still locked around her waist. "What happened? It was like an earthquake and there was this big rainbow that blasted through the kitchen."

"Uh, that was…a spell. To make me feel better."

"Really?!" Henry rocked back from her to look up at her more easily. He grinned from ear to ear, far from the reaction she would have expected at the pronouncement of her using magic once more. "Using magic helped?"

"Sort of." Regina looked down at her hand, blinking, causing her eyes to change colour to a royal purple with the spell. Her brows shot up at what she saw.

Light.

She hauled up her sleeve and examined the magic thrumming under her skin. Channelled along her body in a similar way that blood was pumped through veins but…she'd never seen so much of it in one person before. Seeing magic had been one of the first things she had learned from Rumple, seeing it in a way that no one could cover, it would help her gauge the strength of an opponent with a single glance.

Rumplestiltskin's was like the cracks in a shattered windowpane. Splitting his already golden self into smaller pieces. Cora's was a tree branching out from the core of magic in her chest, spreading over her chest with wells and pools of it attached to the branches like fruit. Regina's, for she had learned the spell on herself, had been a delicate lace pattern. Intricate and thin but latticed over her entire body, a fine harness that she could hitch her spells to and take the energy uniformly from everywhere at once rather from one specific part of her.

Rumple had even complimented her on it once, saying it was sinfully good and all the better for being naturally occurring.

There were practitioners that changed the pathways in their bodies to a more favourable configuration, to one like Regina's, but it was usually more costly than it was worth. Even Cora –the branch and well configuration of her power being taxing on certain parts of her for particularly large spells- hadn't ever attempted to change hers.

Still, the delicate lace was gone and –in its place- _rivers_ of light flowed through Regina's body. Just as widespread and latticed as before, just as beautiful, but so much brighter, so much _stronger_. Regina could feel it then, the power rolling under her skin, begging to be used. She had never felt so strong. Not even when she had cast the curse had the power been so magnificent so…so natural.

"Sort of?" Henry brought her back to the matter at hand and she looked down at him. "Your eyes have changed."

Regina's eyes went wide when she looked at Henry. She had never had call to use the spell when it came to him. Had never thought she'd need to but…oh my.

"Mom, you okay?"

"I'm fine." Regina closed her eyes tightly and –when she opened them again- they were back to their regular chocolate shade. "I'm…wonderful, Henry."

"Really? You feel better? The spell worked?"

"Yes." Regina twisted to look up at Daniel and didn't know what to feel. She pressed her lips together and then looked back down at her son. "I think I'll be okay now."

"Prove it." Henry's face hardened. "Do magic. Show me you're okay."

"Not now." Regina softened her tone when he looked mulish. "Never spell where you sleep, dear. You don't want magic getting into your dreams, I assure you."

"Where then?"

Regina thought for a moment and then smiled.

"We'll go somewhere after breakfast." Regina promised him and inhaled deeply. "Which seems to be burning."

"Oh no, David!" Henry spun and dashed downstairs again, shouting to his grandfather to flip the pancakes.

Regina slowly turned to look up at Daniel and found him studying her intently, a smug smile tugging at his lips.

"You needn't look so pleased with yourself. We could have torn the house down!"

"I knew the earth would move when I kissed you." Daniel smiled at her again. It was a softer smile, the love in him plain for her to see.

"Henry could have been hurt."

"I wasn't thinking straight, I'm sorry." He leaned in closer and rested his hands on her shoulders. "If you forgive me for this, I'll forgive you for nearly getting yourself killed over me."

"We both know I need forgiveness for so much more than that." Regina looked away from him.

"Not from me you don't." Daniel reached out to her and studied her eyes. He knew she wasn't going to stop whipping herself just yet, which just made him ache for her all the more. "Will you give me the chance to prove it? Prove that I really do love you, no matter what you've done."

"Daniel...you still don't know me. Not the woman I am now. This…broken, hollowed out doll I've become."

"I know you, the core of you, you're my other half. You make me whole. That's all I really need to know."

"I can't be her anymore. I can't be that naïve, weak, little girl. I won't let myself. My world is far too dangerous for her, there's a reason I became a crazed monster. I've made more enemies than I have ever made friends and I need to be strong enough to protect Henry from them should they take it into their heads to try something stupid." Regina reached out and rested her hand on his chest hesitantly. She could feel the thud of his heart –much stronger than it should have been- kicking against her palm and the pulsing seam of his silver scar on his chest thrumming against her hand even through the material of his shirt.

"I love you, Daniel." She smiled when she felt his heart quicken at her words. "I always will, but I love Henry too and I can't be who you both need me to be."

"It's not me or him, Regina." Daniel reached up and took her hand in his, bringing it to his mouth and kissing her fingers. "I don't need you to be anything but you and I'm going to hang around like a bad smell until you figure that out."

Regina managed a laugh and cupped his face in her hand when he pressed it to his cheek.

"Give me a chance, Regina. I know you're scared, I know you believe that I can't love all of you, but I can. Just let me show you."

"What if you don't?" Regina's voice was barely a whisper. "If you see me, the real me, and you hate me I…"

"Have a little faith." Daniel tugged her into him and wrapped his arms around her. "I left you once, never again. I'm with you no matter what. Sickness and health, better and worse, I'll be with you." He dropped a kiss on top of her head and his tone was almost teasing when he murmured into her hair. "Though try not to go straight to hell because I'll be right there at your side."

Regina sobbed a laugh and buried her face in his shirt, willing herself not to cry. She felt like she'd done nothing but cry lately. She let him hold her for a moment. Absorbing what had just happened. How he had so casually changed her and was now asking her to change again.

She pressed her lips together. People didn't change. Not really, not truly. There had always been the darkness in there, nurtured and coaxed into maturity by her mother, but it had been in the core of her anyway. It was not in Regina's nature to trust or to depend on other people but…she was supposed to be redeeming herself, right? She was supposed to have a second chance.

Couldn't she at least _try_?

Regina lifted her head from against his chest and looked up into his eyes. She worried her lip a moment with her teeth and gathered her words. She let out a shaky breath.

"Would you…would you like to stay for breakfast?"

Daniel grinned and squeezed her tighter for a second before nodding.

"I would like that very much."


	12. Chapter 12

**Okay, so, it's Friday!**

**And damn you guys, you keep making demands and keep making me rethink stuff and then i go back and write new scenes rather than write new stuff to continue the story and FUUUUUUUU-!**

**Deep breath.**

**Anyway, here we are with the next installment, another Daniel/Regina scene added in, because you can never have too many of those and a bit more drama added in as well...because i like fucking with y'all mainly :D**

**Replies!**

**DustyKnight; The curse had to be resolved by now a) because it's too wangsty for me to keep writing for a long time and not want to gouge my own eyeballs out with my thumbs and b) i want to start having Regina throw her magical weight around (hehehehehehe, it's gunna be good). I have seen season two and this story will mostly follow that arc in that we will see Snow, Emma and Cora again. I'm giving away nothing else though B]**

**Caro! I SEE YOU'VE FOUND THE CAPS LOCK KEY! Kidding :D Yes, Henry does have magic, i tried not to write him as a little shit because Regina IS a psychopath and she did make him think he was crazy. So, whilst i disagree with a lot of what he did and how he acted towards her, he is just a little boy and betraying the only mother he has ever known couldn't have been easy for him. I try to convey that in this story. **

**Guests; writing Daniel well is something i'm not sure i do but thank you for thinking anyway, as for Hyde's presence, he hasn't even shown his face yet i assure you that all of Daniel's feelings up until this point have been his own. If/when Hyde turns up, y'all are definitely going to know it's him, he ain't the subtle type. **

**Aaaannd...other people will be PM'd when i'm not late for work. Maybe later tonight. **

**I watched the first couple of episodes for season three, was displeased on the whole, but had an idea for a possible sequel to this story. Can you imagine Regina cutting loose in a place where she doesn't care if the entire world burns because she doesn't have to live there afterwards? **

**I can B]**

**Anyway, without further ado, read, love, review. **

**Chapter 12 – New Foundations**

_**Behind the Mayoral Building**_

"And you're going to be right here?"

"Yes."

Daniel watched the exchange between adopted mother and son with interest. Regina was bent at the waist, her hands caught on her knees, practically nose to nose with Henry and his eyes never wavered from hers.

"Waiting for me?"

"Yes."

"And then you'll show me magic and prove you're okay."

"Yes."

Regina answered each of his questions with the utmost seriousness. She'd have rolled her eyes and made a waspish retort to just about anybody else, probably even Daniel, but Henry had her limitless patience.

"And you're not gonna do anything…weird between now and then?"

"I can't promise that." Regina grinned at him suddenly. "But Daniel's staying to babysit me."

Daniel was treated to a penetrating look from the boy, which he met without flinching.

"Okay," Henry said at length, "we'll be back real soon."

"You'll be back when you're sure you understand your notes." Regina straightened up and then fussed with Henry's hair a moment. She nodded after a moment, deeming him presentable and released him. "Goodbye, Henry."

Surprise washed over her face when Henry lunged forward and wrapped his arms around her waist in a fierce hug.

"Not goodbye." Henry's voice was muffled against her jacket. "See you later."

"Very well." Regina kissed the top of his head almost guiltily, like she wasn't supposed to, and hugged him briefly in return. "I'll see you soon."

"Okay." Henry pulled away, looking down at his shoes a moment. He risked a glance up at Daniel and offered a watery smile. He nodded to his mom and spun on his heels to dash for David's truck where his grandfather waited.

Regina waved when Henry did as the truck passed them by and she folded her arms about herself, watching the tail lights disappear down the street.

"It makes me ache."

Regina spun, her eyes tracking over him hurriedly.

"What does?"

Daniel hurried to reassure her when he realised she thought it was something to do with his heart.

"To see you like that. With him." Daniel nodded after the truck. "You raised him…someone else's son."

"He should have been your son." Regina looked away from him and stuffed her hands in her pocket. She shook herself. "Come on, I didn't bring you here to talk about pointless things."

Regina spun on her heel, ignoring or not seeing Daniel's frown, and walked into the park.

Daniel was on her heels and he ordered his words carefully before speaking them.

"Our children are not pointless things."

"We don't have any children."

"Yet."

Regina hunched her shoulders but was obviously picking and choosing her battles when it came to him.

"I meant that I cannot change who Henry's biological parents are, nor does that lessen how much I care for him, speaking of what if's in regards to that is pointless." She spoke mechanically, trying not to feel when it came to the words but she was like a raw nerve. She felt completely exposed and sensitive. Not only were her masks slipping, but her walls, the barriers she had up to protect herself from emotional shrapnel, were crumbling.

Still, it wouldn't be the first time she had quietly collapsed in on herself in front of others without them being wise to it. She had been torn in half when Daniel had died in her arms. She'd been ripped to shreds when she'd found out about Snow's betrayal that had led to his murder and –by the time her wedding night had rolled around- there'd been nothing left to fall apart. She'd already been broken beyond repair.

"We have children, Regina. They just haven't been born yet."

Regina stopped in the shadows of the honeysuckle trellis and turned to look at him. Her mouth open but she couldn't summon any words.

"Pardon?" She stalled for time.

"I said…"

"I know what you said I'm just mentally adjusting." Regina hunched her shoulders and gathered her words in a neat row. "You've got to contain yourself."

"What?"

"Daniel, I…I've just managed to convince myself to let you see me."

"I already see you."

"I mean…this morning I would have happily gone to my grave if it meant you never had to know how…how _bad_ I am and now I think I'll actually manage to let you in a little. I'm certainly willing to try but you've got to give me _time._"

"I've been dead for forty years, Regina, I've wasted enough time."

"I'm crazy and you terrify me." Regina stepped closer to him and studied his face. "I am a flighty, paranoid, _dangerous_ woman who melts people rather than talks to them about her feelings and, Daniel, you want nothing less than my very soul. Battered, blackened and shattered as it is. It's going to take a while for me to get my head around it so do me a favour and tell me now if you're still interested."

"You can't drive me away." Daniel leaned in so close his nose brushed hers, looking her right in the eye. "I'll weather whatever storm you think you can muster."

"Darling," Regina was momentarily distracted by his mouth but rallied herself, "you've seen me on nothing but good days and I've walked on continents that couldn't weather my storm. You'll forgive me if I don't take you on your word."

"Then I shall have to let my actions speak for me." He stood straight, looking down at her and waited.

"Hmm." Regina turned on her heel and started off down the path again.

She heard him follow after her and resisted the urge to shiver. She didn't _like_ it when people were right on her heels like that but the path was too narrow for him to walk abreast of her and she had to start trusting him sooner or later.

Regina led Daniel out from under the path leading through the copse of trees and into the gardens proper. She headed straight for her tree, smiling despite herself when she saw it was as hale and healthy as she preferred it to be. There was still the gap in its canopy from where the vaunted Saviour had hacked off one of the branches so cruelly (Regina spent a moment mentally vivisecting the blonde in question) but the fruit was crisp and crimson and the leaves lush and deep green.

Daniel stood in its shadow with her and reached up, gently touching the leaves crowning the branches. He tapped one of the crimson fruit with his finger and smiled.

"I remember this."

"Of course." Regina took a deep breath, inhaling the sharp tang scent of apple, the fresh wind rolling in with the pine smell of the forest. She felt the sun on her skin and kicked off her shoes, the grass was cool under her bare feet. She shrugged off her jacket next, tossing it over the stone bench nearby, and stood in her pants and black tank top. "I brought it with me."

Regina controlled her breathing and started to ready herself for the spell she was about to work. She wasn't one for gods or religion, not really, but this place was sacred to her. This tree.

"Why?" Daniel turned to her.

"I'm selfish." Regina skirted him, the shadows from the branches dappling over her skin, she watched him from under hooded lashes. "That, and it is a place of power to me. Wherever this tree is," she traced her fingers over the texture of the bark that was as familiar as her own skin, "is where I am most at peace with my magic."

Daniel frowned and leaned against the tree.

"I thought you said I had cured you."

"Oh, you have, but there are…factors." Regina offered him a smile, circling the tree. "What you did to me, I didn't count on it, and the magic in Storybrooke is less than tame."

"Tame?"

"Hmm." Regina watched him turn to face her. He had that look on his face. The look that let her know he knew she was going someplace he wouldn't like with this thread of conversation. "It's new, wild, it doesn't _like_ sorcerers telling it what to do."

Daniel narrowed his eyes.

"Regina…"

"Yes, dear?"

"You're about to break it like a wild stallion, aren't you?"

"'Break' is a poor word for it." Regina shrugged a shoulder and folded her arms over her chest, canting herself against the tree. "I'm going to gentle it to my touch and…take a photograph of it."

Daniel blinked at her and she smirked, of course, he had no idea what that meant.

"A photograph is…never mind. The point is; I plan to take a good long look at this magic. I plan to introduce myself and get it on my side."

"You speak as if it's alive."

"It is." Regina smirked again. "Alive as you or I though arguably even further out of control than I am."

"So, why am I here?" Daniel circled around the tree the other way when she turned away from him, cutting off her escape.

"I wish to bask in your company?"

"Flatterer." He grinned, but only for a moment. "You have reasons for everything now. Not sane reasons, not all the time, but reasons all the same. Why am I here?"

"I want you to see." Her voice was quiet and her hand hesitantly came to rest on his chest. His jacket was open, the tee shirt he wore under it a deep green, she could feel the ridge of his silver scar and the thump of his ginormous heart. "I want you to see that I'm magic and I want you to see what that means."

"You can't drive me away." He shook his head, still smiling, though there was a sobriety to it now.

"We shall see."

She was warring with herself, well, he supposed she had to fight with someone. She wasn't built for peace anymore. She was trying to let herself trust him. Trying to get herself to relax that first tiny bit and believe him.

"Yes, you will." Daniel nodded and reached up over his head, grasping a sturdy branch and letting himself swing, grinning like a fool at her.

It was just them. Regina had sent Henry and David away to pick up his homework from school so that she could do this without their audience. Whatever this was.

Still, Daniel wasn't complaining, for the first time since he had returned, she had chosen to spend time with him.

"So confident." Her eyes tracked over him, measuring the breadth of his shoulders and the muscles in his arms, straining against the leather of his jacket. She pressed her lips together. "There is another reason."

"And here's the other shoe."

Regina ducked her head to hide her smile.

"I need you."

"Finally, you're catching on." His boots scuffed the grass.

"I need you for the magic." Regina reached out without thinking and hooked her fingers behind his belt. Her grin was something predatory and she hauled him close, her chest pressing against his. "I need you to ground me."

Daniel's grin disappeared and he thumped back down onto the ground, jostling her. His face was suddenly very serious and she realised why.

Ah.

That had been how she had treated her other men. Her playthings. She'd treated Graham like that.

Regina stepped back from him in a hurry and looked down at her toes curling in the grass. She pressed her lips together and then finally looked up at him again, trying for a business like tone.

"I need someone to hold me here, keep me connected to my body, I'll be going…walkabout."

"Is it dangerous?"

"Not any more so that inflicting True Love's Kiss on me without warning." Regina spoke mildly but she was still pissed about that. She'd have rather he'd tossed aerosol cans into a fireplace. "The real danger is the elements and someone coming across me whilst I'm vulnerable."

"And you trust me to guard you?"

Regina considered that question from all angles before answering.

"I suppose so."

Daniel smirked.

Well, he'd take what he could get.

"You honour me, my lady." Daniel gave an exaggerated courtly bow. "What would you have me do?"

"Things you've likely never dreamed of." Her eyes strayed beneath his belt buckle again before she remembered herself. _Wow_, it had been a while. It would seem her newfound health came with a bonus package of friskiness.

Regina shook herself and tried to muster control again. Holding out her hands, a flash of magic burst between her palms and a rope lay coiled between her fingers. She could feel her heart pounding in her throat, her breath shivering in and out of her chest she was so wound up.

"I need you to bind me." She thrust the rope towards him and he warily took it. "To the tree."

"Why?"

"Does it matter?"

"Yes."

"Looks like I'm not the only one with trust issues." Regina snarked before she could stop herself and rubbed at the bridge of her nose when she realised it.

"I don't trust magic."

"Then you don't trust me, dear, because I _am_ magic. Through and through. If I wasn't before, I am now. You saw to that this morning."

Daniel's jaw clenched and he measured the rope in his hands.

"What does it do? This spell of yours."

"It's like training a horse, you have to speak to magic in a way it understands." Regina hunched her shoulders in a shrug. "I have to show it that I'm part of it. The tree is a hardwired into the magic that now races through Storybrooke like blood does your veins. If I'm connected to the tree then the magic will see me as being connected to it and then it won't fight every single thing I ask of it when I try to work a spell."

"And it won't hurt you?"

"The risk is minimal."

"Minimal?"

Regina resisted the urge to growl. Her life had been a lot easier when nobody cared about her. At least then she could get things done without stopping to play twenty questions every five minutes.

"The reason you're here is to release me from the tree if I have need of it."

"How do I know if you'll have need of it?"

"Daniel, if this spell goes against me, you'll KNOW." Regina smirked and took a step back, leaning against the tree, she looped her arms back so that her wrists could be bound behind her back around the trunk and smirked. "Well?"

Daniel didn't look happy about it, but he circled the tree, looping the rope around Regina's wrist.

It was fine. She assured herself. Absolutely fine. Daniel wasn't going to hurt her, he was there to warn her if someone untoward turned up while her focus was inward and he wasn't going to hurt her.

Daniel's hand closed around her other wrist and she freaked the fuck out.

"No!" Regina flinched her wrist out of his hold and lunged away, yanking hard against his hold on her other wrist.

"Regina?" Daniel released her immediately –as he would any flighty filly- and looked at her with concern.

Regina let out a slow breath, closing her eyes and forcing herself to stay exactly where she was.

"I'm sorry. Habit." Regina pressed her back to the tree once more and forced her arms behind it again. "Any time I've been tied to a length of wood has not been pleasant for me."

"You're sure you want to do this?"

"Yes."

"You're sure that I'm the right one for the job?"

"Daniel, if anyone else were to try and tie me to this tree, I would fillet them with an errant thought."

"Right." Daniel fashioned a quick knot about her wrists and hoped that it was mostly a symbolic gesture because –if she bolted again- she'd pull free with no problem at all.

"Tighter, Daniel, it has to have me at its mercy or it won't believe me."

Daniel growled under his breath and released the first knot, retying another.

She made him do it three more times before her struggles were truly in vain and she couldn't get free without his help.

"Alright," Regina tossed her hair out of her eyes and huffed out a breath, "stand where I can see you?"

The panic was abating, becoming more manageable, she was getting used to the idea that being tied to a post didn't necessarily mean firing squads. Daniel loomed in front of her, his hands resting gently on her hips, his eyes filled with concern for her and she managed a smile.

"It's going to be alright."

"I thought that was supposed to be my line." Daniel smirked.

"Yes, well, remind me to show you the Emancipation Proclamation and we'll talk about gender roles in relationships."

Regina laughed at his puzzled look.

"Daniel, you are a delight."

He grinned at that and studied her.

"And you as well." Daniel cupped her face and kissed her on the forehead. Sensing, as strung out as she was, that anything more intimate would rattle her even further.

"It's fine." Regina smiled and inhaled the calming scent of him. "I'm going now. I won't be long."

"You'd better not. I'll tear this place apart to get you back if I have to."

Regina smiled and inhaled a deep breath. The comforting thing was; she knew he would. Summoning the spell she'd need, Regina took a moment to centre herself, and submerged herself in the roiling magic of Storybrooke.

Regina sank into herself, measuring the flow of power through her body, attuning her thoughts to the pulse and throb of it like someone dancing in time with the beat of their own heart. She leaned back –the sensation of bark against her skin coming from very far away- and tapped into the magic flourishing in her tree. She could feel it, so wonderful, so wild.

The apple tree drank in magic in much the same way as a normal tree would synthesise sunlight. It absorbed it into the bark, the sap, but it did not stop there. The tree channelled the magic not for its own ends as it would light but into the ground. From the leaves and the knotted branches, down the trunk into the twisted roots and bleeding into the earth itself.

Regina focussed on that magic, that familiar pulse, and latched onto it.

From then it was a small matter to clamber down it, sinking into the earth with the magic that grew in veins and seams like gold in a mine. She eased herself into it, into the network and –with a flash that exploded in her mind- she saw it.

All of it.

She felt the magic in her own body roil and squirm. She struggled to hold it in check, wrestling with it and –for the first time in decades- got a full look at it.

With the bespelling of her eyes, the same spell that had let her see Henry's magic, it's like looking in a mirror. She could see her magic, but warped and only bits of a time. With this spell, looking at the magic of Storybrooke, she saw her whole self. Every fractured piece of it.

Suddenly she knew what to do.

Regina's eyes snapped open.

"Untie me."

Daniel didn't waste time asking questions and worked on the knots binding her to the tree instead.

As soon as she was free, Regina pounced on her jacket and yanked out a sheaf of papers. She fumbled a quill and inkpot as well and sank down onto her knees. Unfolding the papers she revealed them to be several sheets of printer paper taped together. Each of them a piece of the human skeleton, life size, and she hurriedly began to sketch over it with the quill and ink. She blew magic onto the quill every so often and it changed colour.

Over and over, she drew symbols and markings over every bone of the body, layers and layers of them until the paper was sodden with different colours of ink. None of which bled together or turned into the muck coloured soup you'd expect of mixing colours.

"Regina…what's this?"

"You might have given me my health, but you've given me a lot more power too." Regina murmured, shoving her hair back from her face and streaking ink over it. She didn't notice. "All of that power comes with all kinds of backlash that I could really do without."

"I'm not apologising for saving your life."

"Quite alright, dear, I forgive you." Regina continued to sketch over the skeleton drawing. More and more symbols and annotations added to the bones. She sat up, resting on her heels, and looked up at him. "I looked at myself in there. For the first time ever, I saw myself as I am. Magically speaking."

Regina looked down at the skeleton spread out in front of her.

"They broke me."

"Who did?" Daniel was partially confused but the mention of her being hurt settled him into a happily homicidal mood.

"Rumplestiltskin, my mother, they shattered me so that I could be their pet monster." Regina shook her head. "I never realised it until right now but…they literally broke me to their will."

"Has it healed?" Daniel's voice was soft.

"You don't heal from wounds of the soul. Not if you don't know they're there." Regina stood and bent over the drawing, plucking at the ink with her fingers. It took a couple of tries, like trying to find the start of a roll of sticky tape, but she managed to peel the ink away.

Daniel stepped back as the gossamer thing was peeled away from the paper to billow and waft from Regina's fingers. It hung in front of her like some sort of macabre lingerie.

"And now you know they're there?"

"Well…you've got to cut out the rotten scar tissue before new can grow back in."

"Regina…" Daniel didn't like where this was going.

A feeling compounded when she released the spectre of the ink skeleton and it pounced on her. Regina tensed, the thing she had conjured wrapping around every inch of her and constricting, biting into her skin. The ink pierced her from every angle, tearing into her like a cheese wire through butter.

"Regina!" Daniel lunged towards her but stopped just short of touching her, not knowing if he would make it worse.

Regina made a choked sound of pain and one leg buckled. She sank to one knee and gasped out a ragged breath when the spell tore through her skin and drilled into her bones.

Regina collapsed onto her hands as well, gasping and writhing in ruthlessly restrained movements. She struggled madly against it, despite trying to order herself to relax into it and let it happen. It was for her own good.

The spell ripped away and then she did scream. The ink peeled out of her flesh and bone, its hooks having dug into the cancerous growths on her soul, tearing lumps out of it as it did. It flopped and flailed onto the grass and Regina sagged back, sitting on her heels, her head thrown back, panting at the grey sky overhead.

"What the hell is that?!" Daniel's arm slid around her waist and he hauled her up off the grass and dragged her away.

The ink skeleton wobbled, gelatinous and half real, over the lawn. It hovered several inches off the ground, dark streamers and entrails of magic stringing from it onto the grass, blackening the greenery.

"My collar. The yoke my mother fitted me with." Regina panted, letting herself sag against Daniel for a moment, just for a moment, before forcing herself to stand on her own two feet. Raising her hand, a ball of fire roared to life above her palm.

Without another word, she destroyed it.

A piece of her own soul, Daniel realised as he watched it burn. She had made a spell to rip a chunk out of her own soul and then she had destroyed them both with fire. Burned them to ash.

Daniel was horrified for her. What she'd just done and so calmly…and that had just been the black ink.

"Regina, stop!"

"It's fine, Daniel." Regina turned, putting the next layer of spells she had drawn on the skeleton between them. It wafted, seeming lighter and brighter than the other spell.

"It's not fine! You just tore a chunk out of your soul!"

"It will grow back."

"It's your SOUL!"

"I know." She was so calm, it was infuriating and he couldn't even stop her when she released the second skeleton spell. Daniel lunged, trying to claw it away from her but his hands passed harmlessly through it.

This spell settled over Regina's skin and sank beneath her flesh with considerably less pain. It wasn't until it reached her bones that she stiffened and shuddered. There was a high pitched sound like –exactly like- a dentist's drill cutting into bone and Regina let out a harsh breath when it was done.

"And what was that?!" Daniel demanded of her.

"Wards. I needed to lay them."

"On your bones?!"

"Best place for them. Like stripes on a tiger. I 'look' like Storybrooke magic now." Regina smirked tiredly but her colour was already getting better. She was recovering quickly. "It will heed me when I call."

"You tore out a piece of your own soul."

"I know." Regina nodded. "The same way a doctor would cut a tumour out of a cancer patient."

"Your soul had tumours?"

Regina sobered when she saw the horror, the desolation, the _understanding_ in his eyes. She smiled wanly.

"And now you see." Regina turned away from him and folded up the now blank sheets of paper.

Daniel was at a loss for words. Her own soul. She had shredded it like it was nothing. Cut out a piece of it and burned it alive. Without flinching.

Daniel sightlessly watched her straighten up and pull her shoes back on. She shrugged on her jacket and stuffed the roll of papers back into her pocket alongside the quill and ink.

"Well," she spoke without looking at him, "I suppose we know now at least."

"Know what?" Daniel's voice was hollow.

"That baring my soul to you really will drive you away." Regina summoned a tight smile for him and stepped away when he reached for her under the pretence of not having seen. "Come along, Henry will be waiting."

Daniel watched her go, his mouth open to call out to her, but unable to summon the words.

"Damn it." Daniel muttered to himself when she strode out of the gardens, her head held high, proud as ever. He scrubbed a hand through his hair and swore more colourfully. "Damn you, woman, and your parlour tricks…and damn me for taking them in."

Daniel huffed out an angry breath. Angry at himself. He shoved his hands in his pockets and started after her with a long and ground eating stride.

She wasn't going to drive him away.

She _wasn't._

_**The Castle Ruins**_

"What are we doing here?" Henry looked up at his mother.

David had driven them to the outskirts of town, to the site where Henry's castle had once stood and both David and Daniel stood back a ways, leaning against the hood of the car and watching whatever show she was about to put on.

"You said you wanted to see my magic. Here's your chance." Regina was just standing there, looking out to sea, studying the horizon.

"Oh." Henry followed her gaze and frowned. He couldn't see anything. "Why here though?"

"It's on the outskirts of town, so if I blow something up by accident it won't hurt anyone else." She glanced at Henry and flashed him a grin. "Don't you worry, I'll never let anything happen to you."

"Blow something up?!" Henry's eyes widened. "Cool!"

Regina gave him a somewhat exasperated frown and then turned her attention back to the horizon.

"So…" Henry drew out the word after a few more moments of silence. "Are you gonna do something?"

"You mean you can't feel it?" Regina glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, studying him hard for the answer.

Henry's face became thoughtful for a moment. As always, thinking carefully before giving an answer. His mother's questions were never without reason and she always demanded that he answer her to the best of his ability. Which was why he usually went with the truth.

"I can hear bells." Henry looked about himself. "Sorta like windchimes." He searched for the source of the sound and looked up at Regina when she chuckled a little nervously.

"So you can hear it." She murmured to herself.

"Hear what?"

"Magic." Regina finally lifted her hands as if prepared to catch something. "I've been working quite a powerful spell for the last five minutes."

"Really?" Henry looked up as if expected her to summon lightning. "Doing what?"

The ringing got louder. Even against the crashing of the waves against the shore, Henry could hear the bells. Chiming like music. Beautiful and haunting. If Henry had ever thought about it, he would not have associated such a nice sound with his mother's magic. He'd have picked howling, like the wind through the trees, the kind of sound that could be mistaken for screaming if you weren't careful.

Henry was glad he was mistaken.

"Mom," Henry tried again when she didn't answer him, he had to raise his voice to be heard over the crash of the surf. "What are you doing?"

"Recycling." Regina frowned ever so slightly, not in effort but in concentration.

Stepping forward, Regina stooped and then surged up to her full height, pushing her arms up into the air as if lifting a heavy weight.

The sea roared in answer, a huge wave cresting against the beach, a wall of water rearing straight up and splashing against something that Henry couldn't see.

Henry staggered back a step in surprise, his eyes flown wide. A laugh burst from him in delight. This was better than his comic books.

Regina chuckled when he laughed.

"Oh, Henry, you haven't seen anything yet." Regina dropped her arms to her sides, content the sea was going to stay where it was in such an unnatural position, and whistled. She snapped her fingers and pointed to the ground where Henry's castle had stood.

A monster came out of the sea. Henry yelped and Regina caught him by the shoulders, holding him in front of her and making him stay and look.

"Be afraid of the caster if you must, Henry, of what can be done with magic, but never fear the magic itself. I will never hurt you."

Henry relaxed under her hold and watched the monster shake itself like a dog, rattling water everywhere in great arcs and wheels.

It was huge, the size of a ship. It _was_ a ship. At least one. An old galleon, triple masted, that had sunk off the coast at least two hundred years ago. Regina had called it, reshaping it into a long animal shape so that it could swim through the water and then summoned it to the shore. She'd had to use the water's currents to help, which was the reason for the massive wave.

Regina lifted her hands from Henry's shoulders and pushed out, gentling the wave back into the sea so that it didn't set off any undesired chain reactions on the other side of the world. She hadn't heard of the butterfly effect until she had come to this land, but there was no reason to take chances.

The ship, now in the form of something between a dog and a dinosaur, the three masts running along the ridge of its spine, the figurehead of the ship, a mermaid, spearing from its head like a horn.

It moved towards them at Regina's silent command. The sound was tremendous, centuries old wood worn smooth by the ocean, the creak and snap of tattered sails slapping wetly in the wind, the great pounding booms it made with every step of its colossal weight.

"It appears to be alive, but it is not, do you understand?" Regina spoke to Henry even as she made the creature bark with a thunderous sound that echoed back on them and wag its tail. "I am commanding it to act like this. It is an illusion."

"Okay." Henry's voice was low, quietened by awe.

He had known his mom was powerful, she couldn't have taken over the kingdom and fought Snow and Charming for all those years without being powerful, but he had never imagined this. Never thought she could summon shipwrecks from the sea and turn them into dragon dogs.

She wasn't even sweating.

Regina dropped the animation enchantment and the grinding sound of the ship settling in on itself as it stilled into a reformed statue slowly died to silence.

"Now," Regina lifted her hands again, "let me show you what a _real_ castle looks like."

The magic washed out of her with the sound of a thunderous chime. Henry imagined this must be what the bells of Notre Dame had to sound like. He clapped his hands over his ear at the deafening sound that was in his head rather than his ears and watched in stunned silence as the ship flew apart.

Every rope, timber and sail lost its connection with everything else and Regina picked the ship apart down to its composite pieces. Right down to the nuts and bolts, the barrels left in the hold, the bones of the fallen crew, picked clean by fish decades ago.

Those she spirited away. As cool as Henry would no doubt think skull and crossbones were, she doubted he'd feel so enamoured with them if the bones really had belonged to someone. Even someone he didn't know.

She was aware of Henry stepping away from her, but not fleeing as he had tried to do before, turning to watch her instead. He studied her rather than what she was doing and Regina cast a glance at him.

"Not enjoying the show?"

"You're awesome." Henry laughed and Regina grinned.

Henry watched her direct the magic like conductors controlled music. The analogy was made all the more accurate by the accompanying chimes and rhythms of the spells she summoned from the depths of her mind. Her fingers made complex gestures at times and she frowned with effort at others, tilting her head and pondering something before smirking and fixing the problem.

Henry smiled up at her when she dropped her arms to her sides and let out a slow huff of effort. She nodded once in satisfaction at a job well done and turned to Henry.

"Well? What do you think?"

Henry turned to see what she had done and gaped.

"Wow."

He had liked his castle before. Loved it in fact. A place he could go to in order to think away from the smothering presence of Regina and everyone else. Just a few weeks ago, he'd have been livid if she had changed the castle. If she had rebuilt it into something of hers, but that wasn't what she had done.

Henry could see the basis of his original castle in the new design, but it was so much bigger, so much grander. It had a drawbridge and a moat, it was three stories high and then there were the turrets on top of that. She had used the old sails and dyed them with magic to make brightly coloured flags that snapped and billowed in the wind.

She'd pulled shells and stones up from beneath the sand to make a little highway leading up to the drawbridge and had conjured a sand sculpture of a sea monster she had once seen to rear up out of the moat.

"Mom, it's amazing!" Henry threw himself at her and hugged her about the waist tightly. Regina laughed and shook off the fatigue, which was far less than she had been expecting.

She had wanted to do something for him, something big and impressive. Something that would prove to him that magic wasn't inherently evil. She had wanted him to see that it was good.

Especially since he was probably going to start manifesting his own any day now.

Regina sobered a little at the thought but brushed it aside when Henry grinned up at her. She smiled in return and smoothed his hair down.

"Why don't you go and explore?"

"Yes!" Henry turned to dash away and made it only three steps before he turned and ran back to her, gripping her hand in his. "Come with me!"

Regina had little choice but to obey as Henry dragged her towards the castle. With a wave of her hand, she lowered the drawbridge for them.

"How will I do that?"

Regina looked down at him and smiled, knowing what one of her first lessons to him would be.

She was more than a little nervous at the prospect of her son coming into power. Especially such a power that it belted from his skin like the corona of a star. She was going to have to do something about that too.

Magic was a dangerous thing, not just for what it could do to the caster, but for the power it represented. Henry would be incredibly valuable to certain people if they ever figured out his potential.

Regina was nervous at the thought of being his magical tutor, her lessons under Rumple had been far from kind at times, but she knew she wouldn't trust anyone else with it either. The irony that she had been so eager to do it just a few weeks ago was not lost on her.

She was also incredibly aware that she had just torn out pieces of her own soul and might not be in any shape to be teaching anyone anything. She had gone through a massive change and –for the first time- she actually felt the damage. She could feel the gaps where there shouldn't be…she could feel her body drawing in magic from the very air around her to fill them.

Power, power was coming to her from all sides and she could only hope the spells she'd carved into her bones were enough to keep it in check because she just didn't _know_ any more…she needed to go back to her reading.

She had brought so many things with her in the vault. So many trophies from magicians and sorcerers she had slain without much effort. Books, scrolls and crystals etched with ancient knowledge. She knew enough, she knew plenty of theory to get by, but not nearly enough for this. Rumple had taught her enough to handle her power back then and she hadn't bothered to learn more. Goddamn he and her arrogant stupidity.

She had relied on her power, on brute force, back in the Enchanted Forest and now it was going to come back to bite her if she wasn't careful. Where she'd had a mallet before, there was now a jackhammer –perhaps a wrecking ball depending on how well she healed- she was beginning to think that the most dangerous thing she might face would be herself. She had to be more informed, she had to know what she was doing.

Regina needed to go back to school.

Unfortunately for her, the only tutors she knew of that were older than her and just maybe a little more powerful now, were Rumplestiltskin and the Blue Fairy.

Which did less than fill her with enthusiasm.

Still, that was not for this afternoon. She could do nothing until he manifested, all she could do was prepare. She smiled down at Henry and squeezed his hand.

"Oh, I'm sure we can figure something out."

_**That Night**_

"Henry really is a sweet boy." Daniel looked down at Regina as she walked beside him and ached to hold her.

He felt like he'd taken one step forward and then seven steps back. She had been wary and standoffish with him all afternoon. Actively avoiding him and ignoring him when she could and only mollifying her tone a little when David, _Prince Charming_, had said something to her and looked pointedly at Henry.

Daniel had hurt her. She had surprised him and caught him off guard with the soul burning thing, alright, she had horrified him. What's worse, she had seen it. As plain as day in his face, she had seen how he had reacted and now she was slipping away from him.

He'd had one chance to prove to her that he wouldn't run from her and he'd shied from the first jump.

He was going to have to work doubly hard now just to convince her that she should give him another chance. He hadn't realised fully quite how skittish and terrified she was of love, of him, and he'd paid the price for his arrogance.

He couldn't very well believe in True Love between them if she didn't believe she was worthy of it.

And he had no idea how to prove it to her that she was.

They were on their way back to her house. David and Henry had gone to theirs with the truck and Daniel had offered to walk Regina home. To make sure she got in alright. Daniel was lucky that Henry had talked her into it, she'd been dead set on refusing.

Daniel made a note to ally himself with Henry more often.

"Yes, he is." She smiled softly but still refused to look at him. She was so nervous and he hated it. He remembered when the only time she wouldn't be nervous was with him.

"You did a wonderful job of raising him."

"At least somebody thinks so." Regina smirked but her heart wasn't really in it.

"Everybody else sees it too. They just don't want to admit that it was you that did it."

Regina laughed and shook her head but didn't say anything else.

"They just don't know you like I do."

"Nobody knows me." Regina spoke quietly and he resisted the urge to growl.

"I do."

"No, you think you do." She glanced at him, just for a second and then hurriedly away. "Forty years, Daniel. Forty years without you. I've been without you a lot longer than with you."

Daniel watched her, his heart breaking. He hadn't wanted to leave her. He'd never wanted to leave her. Now she was so close but still miles away. Why couldn't she reach out to him? Just a little bit. He knew he'd disappointed her with his reaction earlier but couldn't she just try?

"It's difficult to reconcile it as being real, you know." Regina glanced at him again. "You being back. Alive. I spent so much time without you and…my entire life changed, _I _have changed." Her tone lowered a little. "Which you saw quite clearly this afternoon."

"You're still the woman I love." Daniel noticed the way she cringed away from that a little and refused to back down from it. The one thing he did know was that he wasn't giving up. "Inside your heart you know it's true."

"Yes," she admitted, "but I'm so much more –and less- than I was then. I've got so much baggage hanging off me…I knew you'd run when you saw it."

"I didn't run. _You_ ran." Daniel's voice was hard. "You doubt me so easily. You have no faith in anything anymore, do you?" That hurt him, not just because she didn't believe him or in him, but that she couldn't believe in anything.

"Lifetime of experience. You might have been the elder the first time around but I am very much the older woman now." She smirked.

"I've let you down twice now, I died on you and then I flinched this afternoon, never again." Daniel hunched his shoulders in a restless shrug. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm here to say. I'll tell you that every day for the rest of our lives if I have to. If it will prove me right, if it will let you believe in someone, I'll sing it from the rooftops."

"Don't do that, dear, you're a terrible singer."

Daniel laughed and she managed to smile.

"Well, the sooner you accept that I'm not going anywhere, the happier we'll all be."

"I can't take that chance, Daniel." They crossed the road towards her house. He held open the gate and she slipped through it. "Not on being happy. It's always ripped away from me one way or the other. I get more and more broken every time and…I won't survive it again."

How could she tell him? How could she tell him he might have a monster inside him? That they matched in that way. The difference being that she knew all about hers. She at least was equipped to fight it and –now- she was probably going to live long enough to see him succumb to his. She knew she was a coward for being unable to give herself to him because of it but she was too damn scared to do anything else.

"So, that's it? You're just going to give up?" Daniel stepped up onto the porch with her and spread his hands wide. "What happened to true love being the most powerful magic there is?"

"Of course it is." Regina rummaged in her purse for her keys. "That's why it destroyed me so completely. I have no defence against it."

"Regina, we could be so happy together." Daniel stepped closer to her and she stepped back.

"I know."

"Then why won't you try?!" Daniel ducked his head so she had to look at him. "You took over an entire world and cursed it but you won't try to let me in? Not even a little?"

"The rest of the world is nothing, Daniel. Nothing compared to you. It was easy, so easy. Even ripping out my father's _heart_ was easy because it was for you and you weren't there to see it. You've crippled me. I can't do _anything_ without thinking about how you'll view it." Regina sucked in a sudden breath, trying to calm herself and not doing a very good job of it. "You're a weakness I can ill afford."

"Love is NOT weakness and I'm not judging you." Daniel reached out slowly and carefully took her hand in his, silently begging her not to pull away. She didn't. "I want you to move on. Stop living in the past and have a future. With me."

"How can you say that?" Regina pulled her hand away and went back to rummaging for her keys. "You don't have a present, here, all you have is your past. You haven't come to grips with this land, this world. You haven't seen what it has to offer. Once you see, once you're settled and you know me and can measure what I am objectively then…you'll see and then you'll leave and it will HURT." She finally found the key and lifted it out, watching the others swing from the loop. "I'm selfish, I know, but if I never really have you back then maybe –just maybe- I can survive it."

"That's horseshit!" Daniel tunnelled his hands through his hair and turned away from her, huffing out a harsh breath. "You've ALWAYS had me and I'm not going anywhere. The rest of this world is dull and awful without you. It stinks of…plastic and oil and smoke. There's metal everywhere and not enough green. It's drab and disgusting and the people even more so. I will never be at home here, not without you." He turned back to her and stepped close, looking her right in the eye in the dim shadow of the porch. He spoke softly but no less powerfully for it.

"You're my home, Regina."

Her breath caught and, for a moment, he thought he had her. He thought he'd gotten through to her but then she shook her head.

"You can't pin your happiness on me, Daniel. That's what I did to you and it ruined me. I won't be responsible for yours."

"Tough." Daniel was unmoved. "That's the way I'm built."

"Daniel…"

"No, we're done talking about this. You're being stubborn and stupid and you can't drive me away. I'm going to be here. Waiting. When you figure it out, I'll welcome you with open arms. Just as I always have and just like I always will."

Regina opened her mouth, to protest he was sure, but Daniel was done with listening to her excuses. He stepped forward, if she wouldn't listen then he would show her.

His mouth crashed down over hers in a stunning kiss. Just as powerful as the one they had shared that morning. He tipped forward, walking her backwards until he could pin her against the door.

Regina's back hit the wood, sandwiched between it and Daniel and she whimpered. She was powerless against him. His mouth moved over hers, his tongue lancing between her lips and sliding against her own. One hand splayed against the wood of the door, the other stealing around her waist and hauling her against him.

Regina's back arched and her arms wound around his neck. The keys and her purse clattered to the floor. Her fingers tangled in his hair and she surrendered completely to him.

It was different, so different to the other kisses they'd shared. When they were young and in love and everything was still innocent, the kisses were sweet and hopeful. Now, decades of hurt and turmoil later, her teeth sank into his lip and his fingers tightened in her hair. Her nails scraped down the side of his neck and she groaned into him.

Back then, Daniel had been older, a worldly twenty five to her eighteen. She'd known there had been at least one girl before her, he hadn't loved her the same way he'd loved Regina, but she'd known about her and been a little jealous anyway, he'd been so much more experienced than her…the tables had turned.

She couldn't handle the heart part of it, she couldn't tell him how much she loved him or how much she had missed him or even how terrified he made her feel just by being close to her, but maybe she could show him.

She could have wept when he pulled away from her.

"No." He gasped. "Not like this."

Regina tensed. What did he mean? She was too broken? He needed her to be gentle and sweet as she had been? That wasn't going to happen. She had very quickly learned that sex was a weapon and a tool when love wasn't involved. She'd never made love to anyone. Had sex, certainly, fucked a man, most definitely, but she hadn't loved any of them.

"Don't look at me like that." Daniel spoke softly and stroked her cheek, they were both breathing hard into one another's mouths they were still so close. "When I have you, it's going to be heart and soul along with your body. I'm _different_. You can't just give me part of yourself and hope that will be enough. I'm not going to settle for less than all of you and you're not either. Not ever again."

Regina could only lean against the door, panting, trying to figure out what had just happened.

"You WILL be happy, Regina, and it won't be an ending." Daniel pressed a soft and almost chaste kiss to her lips. "It's going to be our beginning."

Then he turned away from her, walked down the garden and out of the gate.

Regina's knees buckled and she slithered down the door to slump onto the front steps. She pressed shaking fingers to her lips and tried not to whimper.

That man was going to destroy her.


	13. Chapter 13

**READ THIS BIT TOO.**

**Okay, so, i'm thinking that i may change the update dates from Monday/Friday to Tuesday/Saturday because i'm sick of doing the home-from-college-frantically-get-changed-try-and- update-and-get-out-the-door-and-not-be-late-for-wo rk dance. So i'll make that changeover when i come back from my holidays. **

**Yes, you read correctly, i shall be away to climes elsewhere from Saturday the 19th to Monday the 28th. So, after Friday 18th, you won't get an update until the 29th. Shocking i know. Contain yourselves. If you're all good, you might get a couple of chapters this Friday to tide you over rather than just one. **

**REPLIES!**

**Caro; there IS a fic out there where Regina admits all to Henry and he keeps the secret for her and Charming. 'Behind Enemy Lines' i think it's called. Sorry for giving you painful rictus though i am glad it made you smile :D**

**DustyKnight; you didn't review, what gives? :D Hope you're okay. **

**Guests; affection as always, thanks for taking the time. **

**As per usual, those with accounts may be PM'd if i'm not too lazy and i don't forget. I'm in a pretty shitty mood today though so it may not happen. **

**Anyways, read, love, review. **

**Chapter 13 – Strategies and Silverware **

Regina stood by the French doors in her kitchen and willed away the headache forming behind her eyes.

She had been trying, for the better part of the night and morning, to work out the safest and least intrusive spell to shield Henry –in a magical sense- from others.

She had spent the night previous ferrying the books and tomes of magic she had in her vault to the mansion. Most of them were open at various pages and spread out over the kitchen counters and yet more on the floor even.

The problem was not in the shielding charm, that was simple enough. Something of Henry's that could be imbued with the power she needed of it and then he just had to wear it. Which would probably be a challenge in and of itself because jewellery was 'girly'. Still, a jewel would work best. That or metal. Silver? He'd probably wear silver without too much hassle.

The problem arose when she had to fuel the spell. Something so long lasting and renewing as a shield –even just an illusory one rather than one needed to repel physical or malicious force- would need a constant power source. The usual tactic was to tie it to the body of the wearer, in minor cases you could even use the heat given off by the body for the fuel. The wearer would be more susceptible to chills, but that was about it.

However, Regina didn't want this impacting on Henry in any way at all. Introducing magic to him, even such a small draw, could force him to manifest his powers before he was ready and 'disastrous' didn't quite cover the events that would probably follow.

The next obvious course of action would be to fuel it herself, easy enough if they had lived in the same house still –Regina ignored the pang that gave her- but Henry was quite often across town and visiting her, she suspected, would not be a regular thing for quite some time if at all. Another pang was ruthlessly swept aside. She could wallow in self-pity later.

The fear that Gold or –worse- the faeries saw what Henry could be, was a drum in her head that she couldn't silence. She wanted this done to today if at all possible.

Sunlight? No. Storybrooke's weather had an annoying habit of being perennially grey. Kinetic movement? Hmm, maybe, but Henry would often sit and read for hours at a time then the simple rhythm of his ribs moving with every breath would be forced to work twice as hard to breathe as well as fuel the spell…

"Think, you fool!" Regina spun and lashed out, sending the dry marker in her hand flying across the room and bouncing off the wall to clatter to the floor.

The shadows from her writing scrawled over the glass of the French windows moved over the skin of her face and neck when she turned to scowl at her equations. She'd gotten lazy. As a student she probably could have figured this out within hours.

Then again, she'd have had Rumple's help…

Regina shook her head sharply. The last person she wanted to know what she was working on was the imp. Well, it was a tie between the Dark One and Mother Inferior. Either of their influences could be disastrous on Henry and she was honestly at a loss to pick which would be worse.

Regina planted her hands on her hips and glared at the window she was using as a blackboard. Symbols and scribbles swirled over the glass, backlit by the soft grey light of the sky outside.

She was giving serious thought to flinging one of her dining room chairs out the window just to make herself feel better when a sharp knock sounded at the door.

She turned and frowned at the interruption. Who could that be?

Regina prowled thoughtfully out into the hallway and approached the door. If it was another angry mob, promise or no, she very well might dangle them from the power lines on Main Street by their underwear.

Throwing open the door, Regina opened her mouth to send whoever it was scurrying with a few well placed growls and glares and stilled in surprise.

"David?"

"Hi." The prince shifted his weight and waved at her needlessly.

"Hello." Regina frowned at him when he didn't say anything else. "Would you like to come in?"

"Yes."

Regina, still puzzled, stepped back from the door and let him in.

"I'm in the kitchen." She beckoned him through after closing the door behind him. "Would you like a drink?"

"Yes, please."

Regina frowned. He was being awfully meek. She was immediately suspicious. What had he done?

Rather than demanding to know, Regina let him stew in it for a while. She went about making some coffee instead. She could feel David studying her as she moved around the kitchen. He looked hurriedly away when she turned and met his eyes.

"So," David turned and nudged one of the books on the counter, "a little light reading?"

"I'm working on something." Regina settled back against the counter and watched him watch her. "It's giving me some problems."

"For Daniel?"

Regina tensed a moment. She had considered working on something for Daniel's possible Hyde problem –but Henry took precedence. Hyde _might_ come screaming out of Daniel's chest any moment but Henry definitely needed a shield charm as soon as she could muster it.

"No. Actually. For Henry." She pressed her lips together and considered what to tell him. After a moment, she realised she had to. He was Henry's grandfather, no matter how much she might wish otherwise, he had a right to know.

"Is something wrong with him?" David immediately switch to high alert and Regina hurriedly shook her head.

"No. Not urgently. I saw something yesterday," Regina pondered how best to put it and decided just to go for broke, "I saw Henry's magic."

"Henry has magic?" David's tone was immediately and carefully neutral.

"Everybody has magic." Regina shrugged a shoulder. "To varying degrees. The difference between sorcerers and everyone else is the network within their bodies that channels the magic…" Regina sighed when she saw David just stare at her blankly.

This was another smelling with ears thing.

"I'm going to use magic on you, it's not invasive, it won't hurt you, okay?" Regina closed the distance between them and held her hands out to him.

"What are you going to do?"

"Words are not the best way of communicating this. Trust me when I say you'll understand a visual representation easier."

"Trust you?"

"You have more experience with trusting others. You'll have an easier time of it than I would, even if I am a raving psychopath."

David studied her hands a moment and slowly took them in his own.

"I've never heard you rave." He managed a nervous smirk and she had to admit she was surprised.

She hadn't been kidding when she'd said she never would have trusted him if their situations had been reversed. She'd have laughed in his face.

"Alright, civilian magic looks like this." Regina's fingers tightened around his hands and the spell thrummed into life.

"You just turned me into a nightlight." David jolted when his skin, his whole body, flared brightly in a pulsing light. It brightened and dimmed in time with the thudding of his heart.

"It won't last long." Regina managed a smirk. "This is a sorcerer's magic." Regina closed her eyes briefly and projected the image of the map of magic running through her body.

"Whoa." David's brows flew up and he blinked at the bright light.

His was a nice light, a gentle bioluminescence, tinged in gold, thrills of blue sparking here and there.

Regina's was…wow.

She had the flushing light too but there was another light, a stronger one that gave structure and purpose to all that energy. It scrolled over her skin like swirls of frost or lace, there was something almost like calligraphy about it. It was beautiful and it shone out from her, even through her clothes so that he could see the pattern ran the length and breadth of her body and limbs. It framed her eyes, cheekbones and jaw like intricate tribal tattooing.

They were pulsing highways of power rolling through her body. The predominant colours were purple and silver, but there were sparks and flushes of every other colour in there too. David grinned and spoke without meaning to.

"It's beautiful."

Regina blinked at him in surprise and cut the spell like a string.

"Uhm, thank you." She drew her hands from his and suddenly didn't know what to do with them. She was unaccustomed to compliments.

The coffee machine bleeped behind her and Regina turned away from him, grateful for the distraction.

"So, that's what you saw in Henry?"

"Yes. When Daniel healed me, I felt different, stronger, so I used a similar spell to the one I just used on you to see my magic and realised the change. I looked at Henry before I dropped the spell and…he's powerful. _Very_ powerful."

David glanced at the spells scrawled over the windows and the books spread over every available flat surface and mulled it over.

"So you're trying to take it away?"

"No!" Regina stared at him, shocked. "Of course not. Never."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Taking someone's magic?" Regina quieted herself when she realised he had no idea what he was talking about. "It's the cruellest thing imaginable. I would sooner kill Henry than do that to him." Regina shuddered at the very prospect.

"No, there's nothing I can do to change this, he is as he is. The best I can do is hide it from everyone else. At least, that's what I _will_ do if I ever figure out how to make this stupid spell work." She growled accusingly at the scribbles over the window like it was their fault.

"Oh, okay." David studied the spells too with the same comprehension a penguin might muster for astrophysics. "Can I help?"

"I don't think so." Regina handed him his coffee. She glared at nothing in particular, as if waiting for _something_ to apologise for this crimp in her day.

"Thank you." David sipped his coffee and frowned. Cream and three sugars. "You know how I take my coffee?"

"Know your enemy." Regina shrugged it off, having turned her attention to the taps over the sink, just in case they were in on it with the window.

"Right." David realised how bizarre this all was.

He had walked into Regina's house, lair of the Evil Queen, not once but twice in the last twenty four hours alone. He had accepted food and drink from her without protest or even thinking to check for poison and he had even allowed her to put a spell on him.

Though that might have had something to do with the way she had asked. Regina was not the type to ask for things. She took them and then acted like it was your fault for not taking it first. To say she had a lack of people skills was kind of like Rumplestiltskin had brokered a couple of deals in his time.

She was changing. A lot. She seemed…not softer but more open. More approachable. Perhaps that was because he had seen her at her most vulnerable. Gotten the chance to see her with Henry as his mother and not the woman who would tear someone apart for even looking like they might take him away from her.

"You're worried about Henry." It wasn't a question but Regina answered him anyway. Well, it looked like even her patience for people, or at the very least with him, was improving.

"Just shy of crawling the walls." Regina murmured absently.

"Well, Henry's a good kid. I'm sure he'll be fine. I mean, he's the son of the Savior, the grandson of Prince Charming and he was raised by you. I don't think there's much that can be—oof!" David nearly upended his coffee over himself when Regina's hand clapped against his chest.

"Shut up." She spoke over his sputtering. "I'm having a moment of clarity."

David glared at her. So much for improving social interactions.

"Yes!" Regina turned to him suddenly and threw her coffee cup onto the counter, uncaring that it slopped coffee everywhere, narrowly missing one of her books. "Yes! Oh, gods, you beautiful man!" Regina gripped him by the face and pinched his cheeks, laughing at him.

"Uh, yay?"

"Family! That's it, that's the answer." She shoved him aside, running to the window, summoning the marker to her hand from across the room without thinking about not using magic. She began to scrawl a new equation, symbols and numbers and what looked to be astrological signs along with other things that David couldn't even hazard a guess at.

"I couldn't do it myself, the distance between Henry and I would make that impossible but with you, a blood relative, I can negate that."

David didn't know if Regina was actually talking to him but he listened anyway.

"Not enough on our own. Your blood wouldn't do it and neither would my magic, but together, we can manage it." She turned to him and grinned. "Don't you see? It's perfect. Henry's magic imprinted on mine, the harness of his pathways is almost identical in configuration. All over and evenly distributed, one in a _thousand_ sorcerers have that kind of blessing. Because he was raised by me, his magic followed my example but it's not just that, his colours are almost identical to yours. As his closest living male relative it would make sense that the magic would take from his blood and mimic _you._" Regina shoved a clutch of her hair back from her face, not seeming to notice that she smeared black ink on her cheek.

David nodded even though he had only really understood about every third word in there. He frowned.

"How could Henry's magic imprint on yours when Stroybrooke didn't have magic until about three weeks ago?"

"Oh, Storybrooke was _teeming_ with magic." Regina waved that away. "The curse itself was magic. It's laced into every brick and stone, tree and twig, even the _water._ Did you not wonder where the food in the stores comes from? We don't get delivery trucks coming through here." Regina was too excited to be condescending. She bent to the cupboards and threw them open, rummaging until she found a big enough pan.

"That is…incredibly cool, actually." David admitted and smirked when she laughed.

"Yes, yes it is." Regina hefted a thick bottomed steel pot onto the hob and turned on the huge central ring, full blast. Blue flames splashing against the pot's underside. "The rest of this dirty little world will wither and die as they consume their resources to nothing, but Storybrooke is entirely self-sustaining."

"Nice."

"I thought so." Regina turned to him. "Silver. I need silver. Something silver that belonged to Henry…be right back."

David was left with nothing but a rush of air for a companion when she ran out of the kitchen and threw herself up the stairs.

If David had thought she was high strung before…

He wondered if he should be worried about what she was up to. He had to take her at her word that she was doing nothing to harm Henry but…that was probably the only thing he could completely trust her on. She would _never_ harm Henry. If she said she needed this thing to protect him from…whatever then he supposed he had to go along with it.

"Got it."

David flinched when she suddenly spoke directly behind him.

"Got what?"

"Henry's head-wetting gifts." Regina opened a velvet box and lifted out a little silver baby rattle. An old fashioned one. She gave it a little shake and smiled softly at the chiming sound that came from within. "I lost the ones I inherited from my father to the curse, but I didn't want Henry to go without and this was supposed to be a fresh start." Regina glanced at him self-consciously and gave an awkward smile. "I wanted to start new traditions."

David didn't know what to say. Maybe that her traditions could have started with _not_ being a psychopath? That seemed overly cruel. He was beginning to get the very real sense that Regina was broken rather than bad.

"Pity." She gave a sad smile and dropped the rattle into the pot. The silver spoon followed after it and David couldn't even see the third piece before that joined the other two.

"Regina!"

"It's necessary." Regina gave him a sharp look and then softened again. "Besides, I'm sure that you, Snow and Emma have lots of things to give him as an inheritance."

"No, actually, we don't." _The curse, you, stole them from us._ He didn't say it but it didn't need saying. He was surprised when she gave a sad smile rather than get defensive.

"I wasn't talking about trinkets." She turned back to the hob and peered into the now smoking pot.

David could see a haze of heat belching out of it and resisted the urge to pull her back out of harm's way. His chivalry gland was acting up again, he realised. He found it a lot easier to ignore it when she pulled a knife from the block on the island counter and looked him right in the eye. He leaned back, not retreating but prepared to defend himself.

"Don't freak out."

It was the only warning he got before she turned back to the pot, fisted her hand around the blade and yanked it out of her hand. Blood splattered and hissed as it bled onto the heated metal within the pot and David lunged forward.

"Don't freak out!" Regina dropped the knife into the sink and held out her hand to ward him off. The other was still held in the steam hissing from the pot, apparently she didn't know that she should be getting third degree burns right about now.

"You nearly sliced your fingers off!"

"Don't be such a baby. I've had worse." She scowled at him and his apparent theatrics. She was still bleeding steadily into the pot.

"You have?"

"Hmm, yes." Regina propped herself up against the counter with her hip, her hand still bleeding into the silver beginning to liquefy within. She continued in a conversational tone. "The worst was actually the clubbing. If you're ever given the choice, take sharp force over blunt force any day. A slice or a stab is a lot less painful than a bone being crushed."

David paled and not just because he couldn't drag his attention away from the blood dripping from her hand. She had to have given nearly a pint by now. Putting a measurement on it sickened him to his stomach.

"Are you going to be sick?" Regina finally lifted her hand from over the pot, turning it palm up.

David watched the blood well, watched the way she cupped her hand to prevent it from dripping all over the floor. She was practiced at this. That just made him feel worse.

"You know," he swallowed hard, "the jury's still out."

"I wouldn't have thought blood would sicken you, Charming. You saw more than enough of it on the battlefield."

"Exactly." David couldn't take it anymore. He snatched up some kitchen towel from beside the sink and clapped it over her hand. "I've seen enough blood to last me ten lifetimes."

Regina looked up at him and frowned. Her face softened after a minute.

"I forget you were raised a shepherd." She offered him an apologetic smile. "I should have thought. I apologise…but there's no harm done." Regina pulled his hand and the towels from over hers and lifted her hand to show her skin sealed and blood free. There was an angry pink line from where she had taken the cut, but that was the only evidence of damage on her.

David looked down at the towels and blinked. Not a drop of blood marred them.

"I didn't realise you could heal."

"Healing can be just as harmful as the opposite." Regina shrugged a shoulder. "Besides, I had plenty of practice." She smiled at him, trying to make light of it but David wasn't so easily dissuaded.

"Practice on yourself?"

"Myself and my Blackguard." Regina tilted her head.

"Really?"

"They were difficult to train. Good minions are so hard to come by." She waved it away and studied him a moment.

David realised what she was winding up to and held out his hand.

"Go on. Make it quick."

Regina smiled at him.

"So willing to fall on a sword." She mocked him gently and reached out slowly towards his chest. She watched him stiffen, consider batting her hand away and then relaxed, letting her continue. She could feel his heart hammering under his shirt when her palm pressed to his chest. He was terrified of what she might do.

She drew her hand back, as if pulling something from him and David looked down when he felt a corresponding tug. His eyes went wide when he saw light stretching from him to her fingers like pulled taffy. It was smoky and somehow gelatinous at the same time. She drew a handful from him and he could honestly say that he didn't miss it. It wobbled and wafted around her hand and she cupped it gently between her palms. She smiled and laughed.

"What is it?"

"Your magic." Regina's smile didn't completely vanish from her lips. "It is truly disgusting how much you love that woman."

"What? The same way you love Daniel?"

Regina's concentration faltered a moment and the magic flickered between her palms. She hurriedly turned back to it and spoke in a deceptively nonchalant tone.

"Love has never been effortless for me. It comes as naturally to you as breathing…I've always had to fight and claw for mine." Regina carefully reached right into the pot with the magic, like she was cradling a baby bird, and let it sink into the now bubbling silver.

She watched the brew for a moment and hummed in the back of her throat, unable or unwilling to notice the way David was looking at her with such pity.

No, she realised after a moment, not pity but sorrow. He was sorry for her and that wasn't the same as pity.

"What do you need from Henry?"

Regina settled down onto her heels and thought for a moment. Blood would be best but she couldn't bear to take that from him, not unless she had to. She twisted her mouth as she thought.

"Teeth." She decided after a moment.

David's eyes flew wide and she scowled at him.

"Baby teeth." She clarified. "I still have his."

"Really?" David's nose wrinkled and Regina arched a brow at him.

"Would you have thrown away a piece of Emma?"

David opened his mouth and then shook his head sheepishly. No. It was weird and creepy to keep pieces of your child's head, but he'd have done exactly as Regina had.

Maybe that's what had him warming to her. He was beginning to realise that she had raised Henry very much in the same way that he would have had the boy been his son.

Sure he wouldn't have lied to him and let him think himself crazy, but all the important basics had been covered. Looking both ways before crossing the street, stranger danger, tell the truth, do as your told (okay, that one hadn't exactly stuck but David thought that was entirely Henry's fault) and do right by others.

It did not bypass him that Henry had a hell of a moral compass and David was equal parts mystified and pleased to know that it had been Regina that had instilled it in his grandson.

"I raised him how I wanted to be raised." Regina seemed to know where his mind had gone. "I tried to show him I loved him as well as telling him…I evidently wasn't very good at it, but that was what I wanted to do." Regina shrugged a shoulder and moved away before David could do something stupid like hug her.

They were allies, tentatively so, perhaps one day they might be acquaintances or maybe even friends, but that wasn't today. Still, he wanted to comfort her.

"Henry's a good kid, Regina."

Regina half turned to him in the doorway but didn't look him in the eye.

"I know it was you that did that."

Regina chuckled, it was wry and self-deprecating.

"Don't touch anything."

David was left alone to warily listen to the bubbling spell on the stove. Risking a glance inside, David grimaced when he saw the roiling gloop that looked nothing like the ingredients that had gone into the pot. It was mercurial and glowing, pulsing with a seeming life of its own.

David prudently took himself to the other side of the island worktop and scowled at the pot. Magic gave him the heebies. Every damn time.

"Coward." Regina lightly mocked him when she came back into the room holding, of all things, a mint tin.

"My experiences with hoodoo up until now haven't exactly sold me on it."

Regina laughed at him again but there was no malice to it. She opened the tin and rattled the little teeth into the pot. She was on her tiptoes, peering into the pot. She rocked back on her heels and frowned as she thought on something.

"Blood, bone and bright…" She murmured to herself and leaned over to look into the pot. She lowered herself to the flats of her feet and backed up a couple of steps. "Ah."

"What?" David didn't like how she was still backing cautiously away from the pot. Purple smoke was billowing from it now.

"I may have made a slight miscalculation with the ingredients." Regina measured the distance of the white embers sparking from within the pot and was disheartened to notice they were already scorching the ceiling.

Damn it, she was stronger now. She hadn't needed nearly that much blood.

"Uh…" Regina turned to David and pasted what she hoped to be a serene smile on her face. "Duck."

"What?"

"Duck!" Regina leapt up, vaulting onto the island worktop and slithering over the smooth surface to crash into David, knocking him to the floor. She threw herself over him, wrapping her arms around his head and ducking her own into his neck.

_**WHOOMPH!**_

Magic lashed out from the pot, a multi-coloured mushroom cloud of it, belching from within the pot. A bright white flash flared, dazzling them even behind Regina's arms and their squeezed tight eyelids. Heat and –oddly- the scent of coconut filled the kitchen.

David was lying stunned on the floor, Regina half on top of him, his ears ringing and a shaking woman in his arms.

"Regina," his voice sounded like it was coming from very far away and from underwater, "are you okay?"

Regina pried her arms from around his head and braced her hands on his chest. Her shoulders shaking.

She was laughing.

David scowled at her and flinched convulsively when another bright flash seared his retinas.

"Henry?" Regina sat up, apparently uncaring that she was straddling David. "Hello, dear."

"Hi, mom, smile." Henry lifted something in his hands and Regina dutifully shook her hair out and put on a broad Hollywood starlet grin. Henry laughed and a clicking shutter sound filtered through the ringing in David's ears.

Regina pushed to her feet, causing David to grunt when she used her hands on his stomach to lever herself up.

"Did you just take a photo?" David sat up carefully and levelled the question at his grandson.

Henry, holding his cellphone in his hand, looked at David owlishly and smiled innocently.

"Yeah."

"Why?" David groaned and got his feet under him. He braced his hands on his knees when dizziness assailed him.

"Way I figure it," Henry confided, "I never know when I might need some leverage." Henry swiped his finger over the screen of the phone and showed the locked screen to David. Knowing Henry, the swipe code was diabolical.

"Leverage? I'm your grandfather. What could you need leverage against me for?"

"You never know." Henry shrugged.

"Henry, that's not very nice." David frowned, mostly because he _really_ didn't want Snow to see a picture of him sandwiched between the Evil Queen and the floor of her kitchen.

"Meh, I'm a product of my upbringing." Henry shrugged it off and pocketed the cell phone. "Thanks for the phone, mom."

"You're welcome, honey." Regina chuckled, braced her hands on the counter by the hob and boosted herself up to sit on it, leaning over the pot. She had turned off the gas since the small explosion had snuffed the flame and waved away the still wafting steam to try and see what she had been left with.

"You're both despicable." David grumbled and glared at Henry, though not entirely seriously. "And if Emma's super power is telling when people are lying, yours is turning up exactly where you shouldn't." David tousled Henry's hair and cautiously approached Regina and her potion.

"So, what have you been up to?" Henry followed his grandfather.

"Cooking." Regina turned and leaned over to open a drawer. She rummaged a moment and came up with a pair of tongs. Leaning into the pot, she fished around for a moment and then grinned when the tongs clipped around something. "Victory." She muttered triumphantly.

Lifting the steaming tongs from the pot, Regina tilted her head and studied what she had made.

"Huh."

"What's that?" David and Henry spoke together and Regina focussed back on them.

"It's a torque." Regina tapped it cautiously with her fingers and dropped the almost circlet of metal into her hands when she found it incongruously warm but not red hot as it should be.

Then again, it should be a horrid mess of blood, bone and metal, not a gleaming piece of jewellery of stunning artistry.

She studied it intently. It really was very well made. The silver of Henry's baby things had been reformed into a necklace of sorts. A ring of metal with a break in it. It was formed of strands of silver twisted around one another, the ends of the strands were rounded off with caps shaped like clenched fists made of the ivory of Henry's past teeth. The rings of metal that joined the fists to the rigid rope of the silver were studded with the black garnet with red and purple veins of Regina's blood and the shimmering blue opals of David's magic made real.

"It's kind of pretty." Henry went up on his tiptoes, his hands resting on his mother's knees to study the necklace.

"Fit for a king." Regina smirked and gently beckoned Henry away to let her down off the counter. She hopped down and eyed her son a long moment. He lifted his head from studying the necklace in her hands and smiled at her.

"What's a torque?" David prodded when it looked like he wasn't going to get an answer.

"It's a sign of royalty." Regina lifted her head to answer him. "Warrior kings of old would wear them to show their status."

"So it's a crown?" Henry looked at it. It didn't look big enough to fit on the head of anyone older than a toddler.

"Of sorts. It is worn about the neck." Regina glanced at David and chose her next words carefully. "I made it with magic."

Henry went still, tensing a moment and then slowly looked up at her.

"Why?"

"There was no other way to do it." Regina sank down on her heels so he could better meet her gaze. "Are you angry with me?"

"No."

Regina smiled when he answered without hesitation.

"But…I would like to know what it's for."

"It's to protect someone."

Henry smiled, the last of the tension leaving him.

"That's good. Who are we protecting?"

Regina smiled, he was so eager to be a knight…she wondered again how he was going to take this shift in his future. He could still be a knight, but he would have bore the pennant of a combat mage back in the Enchanted Forest, alongside the likes of Merlin, Belgareth and Gandalf. All of them elderly. Combat mages were a dying breed if that was what Henry wanted to be. Though, considering his constant need to do the right thing, a paladin was far more likely.

She detested the thought of any son of hers becoming a barrier between people and their own problems, but she knew the idea would appeal to him.

"You." Regina forced herself to answer and watched him frown in confusions. She smiled in a lopsided way. "We should probably sit down and talk about this. It's a little complicated."

"I'm magic, aren't I?"

Regina blinked at him and then laughed. Of course he would already know. She hadn't raised a fool.

"Yes, yes you are." Regina looked down at the torque still in her hands and turned it over and over. "Not just magical but…very powerful."

"Powerful like you?"

Regina smiled at him and reached up to cup his face.

"Powerful doesn't mean bad, sweetheart. Think of all the good witches and wizards you know of. Remember what I told you at your castle?"

"If I have to be afraid of something, be afraid of the caster. Magic isn't good or bad." Henry gave a small smile. "You'll never hurt me."

Regina returned his smile with one of her own and moved onto the next milestone.

"You know how you can hear magic?" He nodded and she went on. "Well, with the right spells, you can see it as well and, Henry, you stand out. Magic lights you up like a Christmas tree and, if I can see it then other people can too."

"I glow?" Henry looked down at his hands as if to check for himself.

"Very much so."

"Cool." Henry grinned at her and she made her face serious even though she was glad he was taking this a lot better than she had expected.

"Yes, it is, but it's also very rare and it makes you very valuable. There are people that would take advantage of you if they can."

"And the torque will stop them?"

"It will stop them from seeing your magic until I can teach you to defend yourself."

"You're going to teach me to fight with magic?!" Henry grinned. This was awesome.

He'd been awake most of the night thinking about it –anything to keep the nightmares at bay- he'd worried that the power would corrupt him, make him bad, let the darkness in him take over, but then he'd remembered his mom remaking his castle. The way she had smiled as she had done it. He'd thought about all the good stuff the faeries had done with their magic and –most of all- about his mom telling him that magic was neither good or bad and he figured that meant it was up to him to decide what to do with it.

"No!" Regina gentled her tone when he looked stricken. "Henry, the first thing you're going to learn is how to run away." She resigned herself to the real world though. "We can work up to fighting spells."

"Now wait a minute…" David started and Regina spoke over him.

"You were teaching him to fence, this is no different."

"Regina, you built a castle with your mind yesterday, not to mention all the…other stuff you've done. It's a little different from wooden practice swords."

"I agree, I'll be teaching him properly." Regina straightened and looked David in the eye. "Those practice swords aren't even weighted."

"Weighted?" Henry frowned up at David. "What does that mean?"

"Wood is a lot lighter than steel," Regina pushed aside Henry's school shirt collar and looped the torque around his neck, "in the Enchanted Forest, practice blades are weighted with a core of lead to make sure that the student is accustomed to swinging the full weight of a real sword and help them build up their strength and stamina."

Henry tucked in his chin to try and look at the torque but made no move to take it off.

"Keep this on at all times, okay?" Regina lifted Henry's chin so he looked at her. "Promise me."

"I'll wear it all the time if you promise me that your magic or using it to teach me isn't hurting you."

Regina smiled at him.

"I promise that using my magic to teach you won't hurt me. In fact, it will probably make me better at it."

"You won't break your promise?"

"Even if you break yours." Regina tapped her finger against the torque on his neck and smirked at the chime of magic between them. "I reserve the right to be mad as hell and ground you until you're thirty, but I'm done with hurting myself."

Regina was nearly bowled over when Henry lunged and caught her around the neck in a fierce hug. Regina recovered gamely and hugged him back, glancing over at David who smirked and then spoke to lighten the mood.

"How'd you know so much about the proper teaching of fencing?" David folded his arms over his chest. She might be able to fling fireballs without breaking a sweat, but if there was one thing he knew, it was swords.

She was exactly right about the weighted blades but David had been working up to that. He wanted Henry to know at least how to handle a sword with some decent basic control, locking the motion into muscle memory, before moving onto the strength training.

"Who do you think trained my Blackguard?" Regina told him archly.

David scoffed and Regina smirked at him.

"What's a blaggard?" Henry looked between the adults.

"My elite personal guard." Regina murmured, her eyes narrowed at Charming. "Don't believe me?"

"Uh, that the Spetsnaz of the Enchanted Forest were trained by a woman in four inch heels?" David shook his head, smirking. "No."

"Name the time and place, Charming. I'll school you too." Regina smirked in return and Henry looked between them.

"Never happen." David laughed.

"Scared of being beaten by a girl?"

"What, are we four?" David shook his head. "I'm not going to get goaded into hurting you."

"I think you're scared." Henry turned to David. No way was he missing out on seeing his mom and granddad in action.

"I am not scared." David enunciated. "I just happen to know when your mom's getting too big for her stilettoes."

"Oh yes, he's scared." Regina chuckled and rested a hand on Henry's shoulder.

"I'm not scared!" David threw up his hands.

"Poow widdle pwince." Regina mocked, clasping her hands together and making Henry guffaw. "Is oo afwaid of the big bad witch?"

"You're half my size." David told her flatly.

"But I make up for it in moxy." Regina sniffed at him.

"That still won't give you the range and strength you need to take me on, _majesty_. Sitting on a throne for thirty years will do that to a body."

"Are you calling me fat?"

"What?!" David looked understandably horrified at the female logic that was being levelled at him. "How did we get to fat?"

"I don't know, you're the one slinging accusations around!" Regina waved her hand violently but both David and Henry could tell from the smirk at her mouth that she wasn't entirely serious. "That's it, my honour has been besmirched, I challenge you to a duel."

"Regina…" David tried for reason once more and had his words stopped by the glove that Regina conjured slapping over his mouth.

"Besmirched, I say!" Regina barely kept the laughter from her voice at his expression. She had to admit that the glove had been a nice touch.

"Fight! Fight! Fight!" Henry jumped up and down, giggling.

David, looking between the two of them, heaved a sigh when he realised there was no getting out of it. He cast a warning glare at Regina.

"This stops as soon as it has to."

"I'll go easy on you." Regina smirked at him.

David sighed and shook his head.

"Alright." He grumbled. "I take it you have suitable practice blades?"

"Of course." Regina smirked and held out her hands, twin plumes of purple smoke left her holding David's sword, summoned from his apartment, and another unfamiliar blade in her other hand.

"I'm not fighting you with a real blade!"

"Oh, calm down, they now have the cutting power of a butter knife. I've shielded both blades." Regina rolled her eyes and held out his sword to him.

David scowled.

"Fine." His tone made it clear that this was all under protest. "Back yard?"

"Now, Charming, if the dashing prince is going to fight the Evil Queen, surely there should be an audience." Regina lifted a hand and snapped her fingers.

Purple smoke engulfed all three of them.


	14. Chapter 14

**Right, so, it's now after midnight where i am, but i'm gonna update anyway!**

**And, since you're all so lovely, i've decided to update twice for y'all before i disappear on my wild wanderings for the next...however long i'm away. I'll be leaving my laptop at home, so no writing for me. I'm going to be doing comic stuff while i'm away, time to start working on something that will actually make me some money :D**

**I'll be twitching and desperate for a computer in about an hour and a half probably :D**

**So, the long awaited fight; this is just previews for the magical brawling that is to come. Regina's in her warm up phase here so don't be disappointed if there isn't enough sparkles and spells for ya. I'm also a little hazy on the characterisation here, i've written Regina's interactions (nice ones) with people as almost childlike since she never got the chance to mature that side of her. Also bear in mind that she is performing for HENRY. Other people happen to be there, but she's playing the part for her son. And that's all the excuses i can think of, other than that, i did it because it was funny.**

**Also try not to be disappointed at any spelling mistakes because i can't be bothered reading through stuff again, i've still got to pack to leave and my travelling is early tomorrow.**

**No replies for particular reviewers other than DustyKnight who gets a special mention because they signed up to ffnet so they could leave reviews :D. Now that's committment!**

**Read, love, review, because it's always appreciated. **

**Chapter 14 – Greatest Show on Earth**

_**Granny's**_

Ruby lifted her head, her keen nose twitching when the familiar bloom of magic reached her heightened senses. She cast around for the source and didn't have to wonder long before the door flew open and Henry bounded breathlessly into the diner.

The place was filling up rapidly for the dinner rush and every head twisted to look at him. He stood there for a second, counting apparently, and then spoke on a rush.

"David's gonna fight my mom."

Silence met that announcement and Henry frowned, he spoke again, louder.

"The Evil Queen challenged Prince Charming to a duel!"

People threw themselves from their seats and they poured towards the door, leaving Granny protesting about unpaid bills in their wake.

Henry danced backwards and hurled himself down the steps and onto the street. He ran out onto the road, which his mom had cordoned off by levitating parked cars across the road in two walls in order to give them a decent battlefield. Henry ran over to them, stopping about halfway between them. They stood ten paces apart and he looked between both adults, grinning from ear to ear. He frowned.

"You guys are really going to fight like this?" He could hear the people pouring out of the diner and others coming out of the other stores to see what all the commotion was about.

"You were the one calling me a coward." David looked down at Henry with a frown. Had he changed his mind?

"No, Henry is right," Regina's voice projected, not quite the cruel and cold voice of the Evil Queen, but close enough to the novice ear. "If it is to be a duel, then it shall be a duel as we really are!"

Regina threw her hand up into the air and purple smoke engulfed both her and David.

David blinked down and found himself clad in the much familiar garb of the Enchanted Forest. Leather boots and breeches, a white open necked shirt and a leather coat over that. Looking over at Regina, Charming gulped.

She stood in full on Evil Regal garb. She hadn't grown her hair out, but it was still swept up into an elaborate style, studded with black pearls and amethysts. Her makeup was dark and striking, her lips painted so dark a red it was nearly black. She wore a corseted full skirted coat with a high collar, styled to trail behind her to show off leather pants tight enough that she could _only_ have been magicked into them.

Her only concession to duelling attire was that the heels of her sharp toed boots were a paltry three inches rather than four or five.

"Really?" David tilted his head at her.

"Might as well give them what they want." Regina smirked and shrugged a shoulder.

"This is stupid. One of us is going to get hurt."

"Yes. One of us is." Regina stood demurely (well, she tried, but that neckline was putting up a good fight), her rapier blade clasped between both hands.

"Fine. You were warned." David heaved a sigh and resigned himself to suffering through this.

"Okay, rules," Henry looked between them, projecting his voice to be heard, "no magic, no backstabbing and –uh- no biting."

Regina smirked at the last and arched a brow at Charming, giving him the chance to voice objections. It was her playful smirk that got to him. She was having fun, so was Henry. Charming rolled his eyes and gave in to it.

"Is it a points system or to the death?" David put on a suitable show of melodrama.

"Uh, three hits and uh…" Henry shrugged. "I dunno."

"You guys gunna fight or what?!"

Henry cringed a little at Grumpy's voice calling over the street.

"Silence." Regina hissed at him and Grumpy actually staggered back a step. She turned back to Charming and Henry and smiled sweetly, suddenly back to being Henry's mom. "Three hits and knocked to the ground."

Regina flicked her fingers and each of their blades suddenly shone a lurid colour. A verdant blue for Regina and, she savoured Charming's glower, when he found his blade shining neon pink.

"Ha-ha." He drawled at her.

"Do you guys get twenty paces or what?" Henry looked at David.

"That's pistols, dear." Regina switched her attention to David. "Unless you'd prefer a shootout?"

"No." David spoke quickly. Swords were bad enough. "Let's get this over with."

"Okay." Henry tore off his school tie and held it up between them.

David drew his blade and rolled his shoulders, readying himself.

Regina cocked her weight onto one hip and _smirked _at him.

David began to get the feeling he was in over his head.

"Fight!" Henry yelled and whipped his tie down in lieu of a flag. He dashed backwards to the sidewalk to stand between Granny and Ruby and Regina waited only until he had turned to see before she began.

David yelped when her blade, blunted by magic, streaked over his cheekbone.

He had barely seen her coming. She had crossed the distance between them, drawn her blade and smeared it and its magic blue goop across his face in one fluid motion.

David staggered back and cursed when she whipped out with her scabbard and slapped him over the thigh with it.

"Pay attention, Charming." The queen stalked him. "Snow isn't here to save you now."

David, still smarting from the slap to his thigh –that was going to leave a mark- swiped at his cheek with the back of his hand. Alright, she'd made her point. He'd underestimated her and she'd proven, had this been a real fight, she'd have taken his head in one move.

"Alright, Your Regal Evilness, let's dance." David raised his sword and went on the attack.

Their swords clashed with a ringing sound that gave the impression that the swords were quite deadly and David heard a sharp intake of breath from the crowd when he swung in a beheading strike.

Regina yawned –actually yawned- when she ducked it.

David huffed an incredulous chuckle and stepped up the pace.

Realising he naturally overpowered her in upper body strength, David dropped his second hand from the hilt of his sword. Trading in the great sweeping arcs that would have winded her and ended the duel in one strike in favour of the much quicker parries and thrusts that were more likely to get him under her guard.

She was good, but he was better. At this at least.

David's sudden increase in speed sent Regina dancing back, surprisingly agile in those shoes of hers. She kept up with him, parrying back and forth, making him work for it.

He only got her when her dress came into play. She leapt back from one of his thrusting jabs and David's lunge brought his foot down on her trailing skirt quite by accident. Regina was yanked to a halt suddenly, arms flying wide to retain her balance and leaving her open to the jab of David's sword into her middle.

David's eyes flew wide and the crowd jeered when the sword bent like it was made of rubber.

Regina's response was to backhand him across the jaw.

"Bad form!" Henry yelled from the crowd, working them into a frenzy.

"What?" Regina pointed her dress. "This is silk!"

"Glad to see you're getting the hint. Evil queens, or their wardrobes, are not suited to the battlefield." David rubbed at his jaw. "You've got a mean left though."

"And your jaw's like an anvil." Regina shook her hand as if to flick the hurt from it. "Must be the wood between your ears. Makes your skull denser."

David laughed but –this time- when she lunged with that surprise of speed of hers, he was ready. His sword came up at the last minute and he parried her blade aside, ducking and jamming his shoulder into her middle and standing again, flipping her over his head.

Regina, not to be outdone, twisted like a cat and tangled her skirt about his head. The loops attaching it to the bodice of her coat snapped as they were designed to and she dropped to the ground on her toes.

Then she kicked him in the ass.

The crowd laughed and Henry spilled the sauce from his hotdog down his shirt.

Granny, in the true form of a good business woman, had taken to selling her wares on the sidewalk. Hotdogs and burgers and nachos. She had been miffed at Henry for dragging all her customers away, but the duel had brought three times the number of people that had packed the diner and they were all up for some dinner to go with their show.

David laughed as he staggered, off balance, and righted himself. He dragged the material from his head hurriedly freed his sword arm, deflecting another of Regina's sweeping cutting motions.

Lifting the cape of her skirt, David snapped it out, whirling it like a bullfighter. The crimson lining of the skirt automatically drew Regina's eye so she didn't react fast enough when David lunged out from under the cover of the cape and laid a wicked pink streak over the leather covering her thigh.

Regina made a sound of disgust at being played and –probably- the clash of the pink against the leather.

"Two-one!" Henry shouted helpfully and Regina scowled over at him good naturedly.

"Traitor." She called softly and he laughed at her.

In that moment of distraction, Charming danced forward and slapped her lightly in the face with the flat of his blade.

The crowd oohed in a low rush when the Queen jerked back and squeezed her eyes shut when the magic paint coating the blade splattered over her face.

"Three-one!" Somebody catcalled and Regina's lips pressed together in anger.

Not entirely an act and not entirely at Charming. She'd been distracted by Henry and it had been idiotic and now she was two points behind and all Charming had to do was knock her over, which he was more than strong enough to do, and he would win.

And that just would not do.

"Alright, kid gloves are off." Regina wiped at the paint on her face with exaggerated care and whirled her sword point up. Gripping it in both hands, Regina jerked at the hilt with a click from the sword. When she pulled her hands apart, she had a blade in each hand.

"No magic!" Somebody called out and Regina just smirked.

"Not magic." Regina grinned. She had gone from a double edged blade to two slimmer and single edged blades. The ornate cage around the hilt cracked in half and served as a wicked pair of knuckle dusters. Nothing magic about it. Just some good old fashioned craftiness.

Charming dropped into a defensive crouch, his eyes darting between both blades and then back up to meet her gaze.

Her smirk widened into a smile.

She pounced.

Charming actually yelped when she ran and leaped at him. He staggered back lifting his sword to parry. He caught one of the blades but not the other and hissed when she dragged the second down the front of his body from sternum to –well- stem.

David staggered away, trying not to just sink to the ground. A groan of sympathy went up from the men in the audience.

He parried desperately, on the defensive. She hadn't really hurt him. She could have hit him harder, but it was a little retaliation for slapping her in the face. He recovered gamely enough, knowing she had let him, just so she had the satisfaction of beating him at full strength.

When he finally straightened to his full height, he decided to end it. Lunging for her, David prepared himself to take the last strike full to the chest and use his larger size to bowl her to the ground. He'd still have had three strikes, but he'd be the one to knock her over.

Seeing what he was doing, Regina quite deliberately turned her back on him.

David yelped and screeched to a halt, jinking clumsily to the side, leaving himself wide open for Regina to drop to one knee and spin, dragging both blades over his stomach in a move that would have spilled his innards on the street had it been a real fight.

David staggered and tumbled in a roll, coming effortlessly back to his feet and making it clear she hadn't knocked him over. He spun back on her, all he could do was try and take her down before she landed another strike.

He hammered at her, moving back to the two handed style and throwing his entire weight behind each strike. It was a gamble, he'd tire quickly this way, but she just didn't have the strength to match his.

As proved by one and then the other of her blades sent skittering over the street when he managed to smack them from her hold.

Regina stood, unarmed, smeared in pink paint, panting with difficulty in her corset and then she laughed at him.

"Do you yield?" David levelled his blade at her neck and she scoffed.

"To you?" She threw back her head and laughed in full on Evil Queen style. "Never!"

She took a step back from him, placed one hand behind her back and held up the other, her index and her middle finger held together in a ridiculous parody of a weapon.

"You still have to knock me down."

"You've got to be joking." David stared at her. "This is a broadsword! Even dulled with magic, it still hurts. I'll break your fingers if you don't use magic."

"Try me."

"No." David frowned at her.

"Come on, David." Regina spoke low enough for only him to hear. "You won't hurt me, I promised Henry. Put on a good show for the masses."

So she wanted to go down fighting, David sighed, fair enough.

He swept forward with a one handed swing, intending to cough the air out of her lungs and bowl her over and gaped when his sword suddenly flew out of his hand.

She had caught the flat on the edge of her finger, deflecting the lazy strike away, and forcing the blade to twist. David's hand bent the wrong way and he let go on reflex. His sword clattered against the street and he turned just in time for a roundhouse to the face.

David grunted and staggered. Damn, if her left was good, her right was like a sledgehammer. David shook his head hard and brought up his fists.

He needn't have bothered, Regina lashed out with one foot, catching him in the back of the knee and forcing him down onto it. Her hand clapped over his face and, with a contemptuous push, she toppled him to the ground.

David sprawled and landed by his sword. Unable to let good lose the day to evil, David whipped it up and threw it at her.

Regina's eyes widened, surprised at his breaking the rules, but it wasn't the first time he had flung a sword at her.

Regina was thrown back in a hop by the impact of the sword and groaned.

David sat up, concerned that the enchantment had worn off with his losing the duel and he had actually succeeded in turning her into a well-dressed kebab.

He needn't have worried.

Regina, in true theatrical fashion, had caught the blade between her arm and her body and made a good show of staggering into her death throes.

"I've been skewered!" She wailed. "So many regrets, so many desserts I could have eaten, so many schemes that never came to be!"

Regina staggered into the audience and collapsed onto Grumpy, hanging from his shoulders and being sure to smear him with pink.

"The illiteracy ray, sentient cabbage, stealing everyone's left shoe!" Regina inflicted herself upon more members of the audience, enjoying herself immensely and taking an inordinate amount of time to die. She clutched at Ruby's shoulders. "Did you know I always wanted to play fetch with you?"

Ruby blinked at her, thrown, and then burst out laughing out of delayed reflex.

"Mother Inferior," Regina moved onto the Blue Fairy, "I never got the chance to stick you on top of a tree."

Blue looked infuriated but the crowd chuckled and Regina flashed her a wicked smirk before going back to dying.

"Pongo!" Regina dropped to her knees in front of the dog on the other end of the lead from Archie. The Dalmatian barked, wagged his tail and slobbered over her face with wet doggy kisses. "There's not enough of you for a coat (gods, Pongo, stop that, I'm supposed to bleed to death not drown) but I was going to try for hat and gloves…maybe boots."

Regina wiped the slobber from her cheeks and neck, smearing more pink all over herself and finally latched onto Henry who was giggling madly at the show.

"And Henry, son of the Saviour, you bless me with my immortal last line." Regina drew herself to her full height and pressed the back of her hand to her forehead, swooning like a starlet, "I'd have gotten away with it if it hadn't been for that meddling kid!"

With that, Regina went rigid and toppled backwards onto the street that made everyone wince and –despite themselves- hope she had used magic to cushion the fall.

A hope that was confirmed when a pristine white lily appeared in Regina's hands clasped over her chest in true cartoon death style.

There was a stunned silence at this bizarre though entirely enjoyable performance and then Henry whooped.

"Yay, mom!" He clapped his hands shouted. "David, you cheater!"

Ruby joined in the clapping and then put her fingers to her lips and let loose a piercing whistle. Archie seconded, Pongo started barking and soon everyone was clapping. There were a few sour faces and a lot of confused ones but –for the most part, they enjoyed the show for what it was.

Regina cracked open an eye when David's shadow fell over her and found him laughing down at her.

"Nice acting."

"Who's acting?" Regina closed her eyes. "I died a horrible death."

"Come on," David leaned down to help her up and threatened when she didn't move, "I'll be forced to try the kiss of life if you don't move."

Regina bolted upright in a suitable show of disgust but smirked at him when he hauled her upright. He kept forgetting how light she was and they both yelped when she crashed into him.

"I'm beginning to think you don't know your own strength, Charming." Regina stepped back from him and then reached up and smeared at the paint on his face. "I do hope this comes off."

"What?" David glared at her. "It's permanent?"

"Oh everything comes off." Regina waved away. "Eventually."

"Mom, that was amazing!" Henry bounced over and tackled her about the waist beaming up at her. "You were so funny."

"Sshh, it's supposed to be a secret." Regina held a finger to her lips and smiled at him. "Like Charming being a cheater." Regina looked over at her attacker and narrowed her eyes.

"Hey," Charming held up his hands, "good wins, am I right?"

"Despicable." Henry looked at him with narrowed eyes and shook his head in condemnation. He couldn't keep it up though and broke into laughter after a second.

"Alright, who's hungry?" David picked up his sword from where Regina had left it on the street. "Granny's for dinner?"

"Yes!" Henry bounced on his toes and then released Regina to dash off to the diner and get them a good seat.

Regina smiled and watched him go. She turned away only once he had disappeared inside and sighed at the cars blocking the street. She lifted her hands, focussed for a moment, and lifted them into the air. All of them. Five cars and two pick-ups and she levitated them a good ten feet into the air.

Some of the stragglers from the breaking up crowd squeaked in alarm but Regina ignored them. She knew she wasn't about to squish them under the cars like a bug (well, maybe Blue if she was still hanging around) so it didn't really matter if they hadn't quite cottoned on yet. Regina flourished the vehicles through the air and, lowering her hands again, set them back down onto the street in the original positions she had taken them from.

Nodding to herself, she turned and headed for home.

"Regina?"

She turned when Charming called out to her.

"Where are you going?"

Regina frowned at him and jerked her thumb along the road.

"Home?"

"You're not coming to dinner?"

"I'm invited?"

"Yeah." Charming laughed and then sobered when he saw her expression. He stepped closer to her and looked down at her thoughtfully. "Regina, I'd be a heel if I was only nice to you when no one else could see."

"So this is for everyone else's benefit?" She folded her arms over her chest.

"No, it's not." Charming glared at her. He huffed out a sigh when he realised what she was doing. "Stop pushing people away. You said that you had wanted this curse to be a fresh start and –well- that obviously fell through for you."

"Thanks for the reminder." Regina drawled at him. He wasn't living up to his name. It was beyond her what Snow saw in the man sometimes. Yes, he filled out leathers rather pleasingly, but the space for rent between his ears was a let-down.

"I _mean_ maybe breaking the curse can be that fresh start. You're changing, it's good. I didn't even know you had a sense of humour until today. A week ago you never would have acted like this and a week ago people certainly wouldn't have cheered you on."

"Cheered on my death throes?"

"Cheered on you being the mother to Henry that everyone hoped you were." David corrected her. "People didn't just think he was crazy for The Storybook stuff, they thought he was nuts for loving someone so cold and distant as you." David didn't varnish it though he didn't enjoy the way she flinched and looked down at her toes. "They can see, or they caught a glimpse, of who you really are."

"Who I really am is the villain. That's my part to play."

"Fine, then play that part when it suits you." David shrugged. "Maybe you can be Regina behind the scenes though."

Regina smiled, bemused but smiling anyway without any real notion as to why. That had been complete nonsense he had just spouted.

"So, fresh starts." David thrust his hand out at her. "Hi, my name is Charming, my friends call me David. Wanna hang out?"

Regina blinked at him for a long moment and then cautiously –as if expecting it to be a trick- accepted his handshake.

"Hello…David, I'm the Evil Queen. My," she hesitated to use the word, "friends call me Regina. I've never 'hung out' before, but I suppose I'll try anything once."

"There." David grinned at her. "Was that so hard?"

"You have no idea." Regina blew out a breath and then scowled.

She reached up and pulled at the clasps on her jacket, unhooking them and releasing the tight cinch of the corseted clothes. She shrugged it off so she stood in her leather trousers and a black tank top.

"Yeah, I do." David looked at her suddenly serious. "I'm willing to try and forgive if you are."

Regina's head snapped up to look at him, smeared in blue paint, bruised from where he had taken her punch to the face in good graces and saw the truth in his eyes. No artifice, no manipulation, this wasn't easy for him, there was a lot of bad blood and even more history between them, but he was willing to try.

For…for her _friendship_.

That puzzled Regina most of all and all she could muster as a reply was a nod. He smiled at her and held out his hand, letting her precede him to the diner.

She cautiously approached the steps and warily pushed her way inside, bracing herself against the silence that greeted her.

Everyone stared and she tensed, she felt her walls drawing up, felt the mask creeping into place and then Charming's hand came down on her shoulder and he cut it off.

Just like that.

"Well, it would seem the rumours of her majesty's death were greatly exaggerated." David spoke with a theatrical sigh. "Foiled again."

The tension broke and Ruby appeared in front of them. She took her time looking over both of them, eyeing the swords in their hands. She planted her hands on her hips and put on her best Granny face.

"You're not gunna start leaping on the furniture and getting paint everywhere are you?"

"I think David has taken all the beating he can stand." Regina smirked.

"I _won_!" He protested.

"_I _won." Regina corrected him. "You cheated."

Ruby looked a little thrown by the banter between the two but warily joined in anyway.

"She did kind of kick your ass."

"Kind of?" Regina snorted.

"Alright, I'm with her royalness here, you got trounced, Charming." Ruby jerked her thumb at Regina.

"WELL," David threw back his head and looked affronted, "I'll remember _that_ the next time I'm expected to save the day." He looked down his nose at both women. "Teaming up on me is not fair so I –and the tattered remains of my manhood- are going over there where I shall anxiously await certain werewolves _fetching_ my dinner."

With that, he swaggered off to the back of the diner where he could see Henry.

"Do you think Snow knows he bats for the other side?" Regina folded her coat over her arm and asked in a conversational tone.

"HAH!" Ruby clapped her hand over her mouth and then looked sideways at Regina. "That's not funny."

"It is, because it is clearly not true…but it would be fun to perhaps…give Snow some doubts upon her return?" She glanced appraisingly at Ruby who watched her in return with that direct pale stare of hers.

"Snow's coming back? For definite?" Ruby brightened at the prospect and Regina felt a little…hell, she felt guilty.

"If there's one thing the happy couple do, it's _find_ each other." Regina huffed out a breath.

"I'm familiar with the phrase." Ruby pursed her lips and mulled the other woman over. She shifted her weigh onto one foot and narrowed her eyes. "Doubts such as?"

"Well, I've renounced my evil ways but nobody said I couldn't be…mischievous." Regina tilted her head and smirked. She didn't even know if she was toying with Ruby or actually wanted to make Charming's life a little miserable upon his wife's return.

"Mischievous?"

"I'm on this new Redemption Diet. Best way to shed Evil according to all sources. Apparently having fun and making friends is good for me." Regina shrugged a shoulder like it didn't matter either way to her. "Friends are still something of a foreign concept to me but I am in the market for a partner in crime."

Regina didn't look at Ruby but Ruby studied her intently. She realised then, not just from her stance but from the scent of nervousness coming off her, exactly how much it taxed Regina to stretch out a hand of friendship like that. Ruby had the very real sense that –should she shoot the idea down- Regina would be hurt and that…Ruby didn't want to do that.

For the first time in a long time, Regina didn't reek of pain and Ruby didn't really want to see the return of it. Especially now that she had seen there was a funny, caring, woman buried under all the cruelty. Just a glimpse, just a hint, but Ruby had seen it.

"Mom!" Henry called out and Regina smirked. "I'm hungry!"

"Well, I'd better get going." Regina pressed her lips together into something of a sad smile and Ruby caught her arm before she could make her getaway.

"We'll speak more of this, you and I." She waved between them with her notepad. "Meet me here for brunch tomorrow. I haven't been naughty in far too long." Ruby winked at Regina and then hurried back to the bar. Grumpy was grumbling about needing a refill.

Regina, smiled and headed towards the back of the diner where Henry and Charming sat. She was glad they'd picked the back so she could see everyone and be near the emergency exit.

Just because she was making friends didn't mean she didn't want to have an easy out should a wild mob appear.

"Hey, mom, look who I found." Henry knelt on the bench in the booth so it was only when she got closer that she saw there was someone else sitting there with her son and the prince.

"Regina." Daniel stood out of the booth and waved for her to sit in by the window.

"Daniel." Regina was suddenly acutely aware of exactly how ridiculous she had to look and faltered.

"Daniel kept a table for us." Henry supplied when Regina managed to force herself into the booth. It meant she would have to vault either over the back of it or across the table to get out should the need arise.

"So we can all eat dinner together." Henry finished on a smile and Regina cast a glance at Daniel who was sitting far too close for her peace of mind.

"Yay." She said weakly.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15 – Awkwaaard…**

Regina shifted in her seat and tried not to look as terrified as she felt. Yeesh, give her angry mobs and flaming pitchforks any day.

She was intensely aware of how close Daniel was and she was trying to beat down the urge to crawl all over him and stick her tongue down his throat.

She loved him, heart and soul, head over heels, of course she loved him but she _wanted_ him too.

He had damn near set her hair on fire with his kiss the night before and she had realised fully how much their relationship would be changed if she allowed him closer. She wasn't an innocent little girl anymore. She was a grown woman with more than a little bit of a sex drive and he was an exceedingly attractive man. That, coupled with having wanted him for forty years and finally being confronted with him again, left her more than a little frustrated.

Regina studied her pink stained hands, then again, there were multiple reasons she held herself back.

For a start, Daniel might not be alone in there. Hyde could be lurking under the surface and Regina could think of few worse places for something like him to manifest other than between her legs. Secondly, she definitely wasn't the innocent teenager she had been when they had first fallen in love. She knew all about sex and all about what it could be used for –physical pleasure being the least of which. Not only that, but she was so accustomed to pain that…well, she had developed a bit of a taste for it.

Could Daniel, her sweet and kind man, bring himself to hurt her? Not badly, she didn't want him to spill blood and crack bones, but she wanted to be restrained, she wanted him to be stronger than her. To hold her down and prove himself her equal, to set his teeth to her neck and fuck her until she ached.

What if he couldn't?

What if she was too broken for him?

"Regina?"

"Hmm?" Regina lifted her head and found David looking at her.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." The lie came automatically and she realised he saw it immediately. She shook her head and heaved in a breath. Friends. Right. She supposed she had to start somewhere. "I'm just tired."

David smiled, realising she had adjusted what she'd said. For him.

"You're really not hurt?"

"You hit like Snow." Regina dismissed it with a small smirk and David chuckled.

"I didn't want to hurt you."

"There's a first time for everything."

Regina pressed her lips together when David nearly flinched. She looked out the window. Damn it. She was a cat on a hot tin roof. She didn't know how to do small talk. She didn't know how to babble on, talking constantly but saying nothing. If she spoke, it was for a reason and people listened because of it.

It was all new and scary and she was trying very hard not to just teleport away and hide in her lair.

Still, she'd been given a second chance and she wasn't about to just give up on it. She'd never surrendered a day in her life and she wasn't about to start now.

"So," Henry said loudly, "what you been up to, Daniel?"

Daniel looked a little startled at being the centre of attention but rallied himself.

"I've been working a lot, for the Dunbroch Clan at the Ugly Duckling bar." Casting a sideways glance at Regina to see a distinct lack of surprise, he realised she must have been keeping tabs on him via other means. Most likely long haired doctors that had named themselves his minder.

"You work in a dive? Cool."

"Henry." Regina spoke in mild rebuke and Henry looked at her askance.

"What?"

"It's hardly their fault it's a dive, is it?" She shifted in her seat and looked out the window again.

Everything. Everything here was her fault. The broken families, split up by the curse, the animals trapped in human shapes, the way Gepetto's shop sign kept falling squint, Rumple's limp (not that she really felt badly about that one), the potholes in Main Street and the fact that a proud and royal clan had to work and live in a dive when they had come from a wild kingdom and a sprawling castle…how could Daniel possibly love her in return?

Once he realised the true extent of the suffering she'd caused…he'd leave. He'd despise her, just like everyone else did.

"They like it."

Regina whipped her head around to look at Daniel.

"Eleanor loves the bar, she says it's just like home but without all the half nudity and now her children have access to modern medicine." Daniel smirked at her. "She still wants to 'give ye a leatherin'," Daniel mimicked the queen's accent, "but she's adapted to her life here."

Regina had no response to that.

"So you're getting on well there?" David tried to steer the conversation onto a subject that would make Regina less twitchy.

"Yes. They're all kind people, the patrons have learned not to get too boisterous while I'm there and –even if they're drunk enough to do so- it's short work to inform them of the error of their ways."

"You hate taverns." Regina murmured. "You hate brawling even more."

"But I am good at it." Daniel shrugged.

"You could work in the stables again."

"They don't have any positions available." Daniel smirked, at least she was talking to him. "I checked."

"I'm sure arrangements could be made." Regina looked up when the table went quiet. "I meant in their budget. Someone could take a look at their books. I'm sure that many children who wished they could ride in the Enchanted Forest now have the opportunity to do so. Say what you like about my curse, but it did give people a lot more disposable income. They could probably do with another instructor." Regina hunched her shoulders and folded her arms on the table top. "That's all I meant."

An uncomfortable silence was broken only when Ruby arrived to take their order. Regina ordered a pint of soda and told Ruby to surprise her with the rest of the order, just so long as there was a lot of it. She wasn't in the mood to remind herself that she knew the menu back to front because she'd been looking at it for nearly thirty years.

"Mom?"

Regina tore her tense gaze away from the window and softened a little when she looked at Henry.

"Could we maybe go riding tomorrow? I think I'm ready now. Tonto says I can ride him."

Regina blinked at him.

"Tonto. My horse. He told me his name. I think that means I can ride him now."

Regina frowned, mystified, and then cast a glance at David who shrugged and smiled.

"And you want me to teach you?"

"Daniel says you're really good with horses." Henry pointed to Daniel.

"I thought David was teaching you."

"Yeah, he is but…I wondered if it was something we could do together. You and David are kinda friends now so…I thought it might be fun."

"I don't mind." David volunteered.

Regina looked down at Henry's hopeful face and smiled. "Of course I will."

"Tomorrow?"

"It's not like I have anything else to occupy my time with." Regina smirked and Henry beamed.

"We can meet you at four then?" Henry said this to Daniel and Regina stilled.

"We'll be waiting." Daniel smiled in return and Regina darted a look between them. She felt the walls closing in.

"Daniel's taking Merida to the stables tomorrow so they can go riding. We can all go together."

Regina narrowed her eyes at Henry. Foxed again.

"That sounds great." David chimed in and Regina levelled a look at him too. Just for good measure.

Regina gave very real consideration to just teleporting away.

"We won't be able to go very far." Regina finally mustered a response that didn't involve mentally setting fire to people. "Henry can't ride."

"He could have his first lesson and ride with one of us." Daniel spoke blandly. "I know that's how you preferred to learn."

Regina looked at him, her gaze raking him and spoke before she remembered her audience.

"That had a lot more to do with you than it did the horse."

Daniel grinned and she sharply looked away to find David staring at the ceiling and trying not to laugh. Henry looked confused but decided not to question it. His mom sure did act weird around Daniel.

"Drinks for this evening's actors." Ruby appeared at the table and flourished their drinks down in front of them.

Regina seized on the distraction and spent an inordinate amount of time checking to see if there were enough bubbles in her soda and strongly considered making an excuse to go up to the bar and ask for it to be turned into a float with some strawberry ice cream.

She didn't usually prescribe to so much sugar but using the magic and the lack of food all day was taking its toll. Regina sipped on the soda and stared determinedly out the window. Maybe if she ignored the need to leap out of it, it would go away.

"Mom?"

"Yes?" Regina blinked out of her fantasies of escape and focussed on Henry again.

"When are you and Daniel going to go on a date?"

Regina went completely still and didn't have to look at Daniel to know that he had turned to face her.

"Yes, Regina, when?"

Regina gulped audibly and looked between both of them. She felt the walls rising again, closing in and her hand white knuckled on the edge of the table. She very nearly summoned her magic but David, as was his want, came to her rescue.

"When she's finished on the project I have her doing." David sipped from his beer and looked between Daniel and Henry with a warning undertone. "Regina is working on something magical to keep the town safe. Aren't you?"

Regina looked up at David and could have happily kissed him, she felt something unclench within her and nodded.

"Yes. I'm going to start on it tomorrow night."

Daniel rumbled a sound deep in his chest that might have been disbelieving but let it drop.

"I suppose I'll just have to take what I can get then."

Regina shifted uncomfortably and didn't respond. This was torture.

How did normal people _do_ this?

_**Later…**_

"Have you managed to unclench a little?"

Regina, who had been trapped into Daniel escorting her home again, looked up at him for just a second before looking sharply away. She hugged herself and Daniel shrugged from his jacket, deliberately mistaking her actions for a shiver of cold. He wrapped the dark leather that smelled of him around her.

"Not really, no." Regina decided not to fight him and tugged the jacket tighter about herself instead. It was still warm from his feverish body heat. He was hotter now, Rachel had said, just naturally ran at a higher temperature than everyone else.

"Do I frighten you that much?"

"No. Not you." _Hyde, maybe, but not you._

"I'm sorry, for cornering you when Henry asked about dating." Daniel was quiet a moment more. "What _is_ dating anyway?"

Regina blinked and actually stopped walking before she threw her head back and laughed. It lasted a little too long. She only stopped when Daniel's fingers touched the corner of her mouth and then she sobered up real quick.

"It feels like centuries since I saw you smile last."

"It feels longer since I meant it." Regina didn't move away from his finger brushing over her lip.

They stood in the middle of Main Street, anyone might see. Yes, Daniel had sat and dined with her but that could have been explained away by him joining Henry and David and her just happening to be there…no one would assume that someone would want to spend time with her. No one liked the Evil Queen.

"Not here." She murmured, but still didn't retreat.

"Why not?"

"I'm dangerous."

"Not to me."

"I attract it."

"You certainly attract me."

Regina smiled again and forced herself to sober.

"I don't want to get you hurt."

"Then don't send me away."

"Daniel, I'm not…I don't know if I can be who you need me to be."

"I don't need you to be anything but with me." Daniel reached up and cupped her face in his hands. "I don't need anything but you."

"That's crazy." She reached up and held his wrists in her hands but didn't try to part them. "You _can't_ make someone else responsible for your happiness. It doesn't work."

"I can't help it. I love you." Daniel pressed a kiss to her forehead and Regina closed her eyes, shivering.

"What a cruel thing it is." She whispered. "Love, what a cancerous thing, a slaver of the heart. I live in your thrall, Daniel. You make me helpless. I don't _like_ being helpless."

"You only feel helpless because you're trying to fight it." Daniel bent a little so he was at eye level with her. "If you accept it, if you accept me, than you will be so strong for it. I promise you."

"You've never made a promise you've kept."

Daniel jerked as if she'd struck him and dropped his hands. He retreated from her a step and stared down at her.

"I didn't mean to die."

"And I didn't mean to go mad, but here we are." Regina hugged herself, bereft of his heat and his touch but too broken to let herself have it. She was damned if she did and crushed if she didn't. Gods, this man tortured her.

"Regina, I'm back, we have a second chance." Daniel didn't try to touch her again, he had the feeling it didn't help his case. At least not now. "Don't throw it away."

"I need to…to try and be better for me. By myself. If I…if I pile it on you again and something happens then…then the Dark One will have to move over." Regina forced herself to meet his eyes but she couldn't hold it. "Do you understand? Do you recognise the forces you toy with when you court me? You've already made me _stronger_, Daniel, and all it's done is made me that much more dangerous."

"I'm NOT going to die on you!"

"You just said you didn't mean to do it the last time!" Regina hissed at him, getting more frightened which just made her angrier. "You are still only human. Even now, coming back from the dead, you are still a _man_ and I'm not even mortal anymore!"

Daniel straightened, his eyes going wide.

"What do you mean?"

Regina stood there, chest heaving, the twilight grey of encroaching night gilding her skin. She hissed a breath between her teeth and rubbed at her forehead. She hadn't meant to say that. She had NO control when it came to him. He ripped away everything until she was that frightened subjugated little girl again.

"People –_creatures-_ of my power do not age. The magic doesn't allow for it. I'll outlive you. If it's not now –it will be later- you'll die on me all over again." She looked down at her hands. She would give _anything_ for it to be different but it wasn't. Even with all the power rushing through her like blood through her veins, she couldn't make him immortal.

"No, I won't. I'm NOT human anymore. Look." Daniel turned from her and studied the street a moment, wondering how to show her, then his gaze landed on one of the trucks she had levitated earlier in the evening.

Striding over to it, looked it over and decided how best to do it.

"Daniel, what are you…oh…my…" Regina stammered into silent shock when Daniel crouched and gripped the front bumper of the car.

With a single heft of effort, he bounced it up off its front wheels and then ducked beneath and seized it by the undercarriage and the axle. With a snarl of effort, Daniel heaved and lifted.

The whole thing.

He lifted the pickup over his head.

With his bare hands.

"See?" Daniel pushed and bench-pressed a goddamn Buick. "I'm stronger now. I can protect myself. You needn't be afraid for me."

Regina made a very high pitched sound that eked out the back of her throat.

No. Not this. Hyde. No.

Regina's mouth opened to speak but she couldn't make any other sound except for a pained wheeze. Her eyes were screaming when she realised she was probably right. She'd had the hope, the wilful stupidity that maybe Whale _hadn't_ used Hyde's heart, or that he had at least put it into something else but now…damn.

"Don't be afraid." Daniel misread her reaction and carefully lowered the pickup back to the street, he cautiously approached her. "I'll never hurt you."

"You never mean to, no." Regina murmured.

The worst thing was the hope.

She tried to steel herself against it, tried to stamp it out of her heart, but it was always there. The hope that maybe –just maybe- he was right.

Maybe he was immortal now. Maybe being brought back from death made him immune to it. Maybe he could stay with her.

"It doesn't hurt me." Daniel gripped her shoulders, rubbing her arms, trying to comfort her. "I feel fine. You _don't_ have to worry for me. Rachel says that my new heart isn't strained in the…"

"Rachel?" Regina lanced him with a glare.

"Doctor Towers." Daniel continued warily. "She did some tests. To make sure my body could take the strain of all the strength."

"Rachel _knew?!"_

"Uh…" Daniel wavered, he'd never seen Regina _angry_ before. Not like this.

Regina's eyes flashed purple and he tightened his grip on her arms. She wasn't leaving him behind again.

Luckily for him, that was not her intention or she'd have sheared both arms off at the elbow when she disappeared.

Daniel blinked blearily at the purple smoke dissipating around them and found himself on a nice street in a quiet part of town.

Regina had already twisted out of his hold and stormed up the garden path of the four storey granite house. She flicked her wrist and the door exploded off its hinges.

"Regina!" Daniel hurried after her. He didn't know where they were but he could sure as hell make an educated guess. "Regina, stop!"

Daniel barrelled into the house and stalled at what he saw.

The wallpaper. The wallpaper was alive.

"Get the hell out of here, you bitch!" Eugene, uncaring of living sunflowers peeling off the walls, hurdled the couch and flew at Regina, swinging a baseball bat with extreme prejudice.

It shattered.

The hardened pine of the bat crashed into Regina's cheekbone and exploded into shrapnel, pattering harmlessly away from her and tearing into Eugene's bare chest and arms.

With a wave of her arm, the sunflowers descended on Eugene and wrapped around his arms, legs and neck. She clenched her hand into a fist and the flowers hoisted the struggling and screaming man up off the floor and slammed him into the ceiling. Regina pinned him there and turned her full and burning attention on Rachel, who was hurriedly buttoning her shirt and trying to keep her composure.

"Good evening, Regina." Rachel glanced up at Eugene, relieved to see him still breathing and struggling. "Daniel." She nodded to him.

"The pictures, of his heart, with the ultrasound, did you take them?"

"Yes, I did the ultrasound the day you abandoned him in the hospital." Rachel's voice was tight, she looked up at Eugene again. "Put him down."

"The ultrasound, I need to see it."

"Put him down, Regina."

"You're not hearing me. The ultrasound. Now."

"No, you're not hearing ME," Rachel spoke with the command of a doctor and doctor trumped queen. "Put. My. Husband. Down."

"Or what?"

"Regina, these people have been nothing but kind to us." Daniel tried to diffuse the situation.

"We shall see." Regina murmured and tilted her head. "Well?"

"Put him down or you get nothing." Rachel drew herself up to her full height. A full three inches shorter than Regina. "I can promise you that."

"What makes you think I won't kill him?"

"Regina, don't!"

"This is what I am!" She rounded on Daniel, a roar in her voice. "This is what I do. I have been torment to a world, horror to thousands and death to hundreds. I cannot be another way." She turned back to Rachel. "All hail the Evil Queen."

"What? You think you can't be loved so the only thing left is fear?" Daniel demanded of her.

"I wonder if it is better to be loved or feared, which would you prefer, doctor?" Regina never looked away from Rachel.

"I imagine the problems truly arise when neither is applicable." Rachel's poker face was fantastic. "Lower my husband right now."

"You are disobeying me. Disobedience is not tolerated."

"This isn't the Enchanted Forest and I am NOT one of your subjects. Let Eugene go." Rachel sucked in a deep breath and steadied herself. "I know you're not going to hurt him, if you were going to, he'd be dead already, but I would like to know why you're so scared."

"I'm only afraid when I'm not in control." Regina pointed up at Eugene's futile struggling. "That's hardly the case here."

"Really? You come in here, blowing the door off the hinges, screaming demands and taking somebody hostage, _that's_ you in control?" Rachel arched a brow. "Try again."

Regina's jaw clenched so hard it clicked and she rocked back on her heels, sucking in a deep breath.

Eugene dropped from the ceiling with a yelp and the wallpaper receded back into its original form. Regina looked at the floor a moment and then tossed her head, shaking her hair back. The door leapt back into its frame with a thud. Even the baseball bat repaired itself.

"I'm…sorry." Regina spoke after a moment. "I was…concerned."

"I can see that." Rachel dropped to her knees beside Eugene, checking him over.

Regina had arrested his fall at the last moment to save him from hurting himself and he appeared to be completely healed from the baseball bat shrapnel too. It would seem that Regina genuinely was sorry.

"I need to see his heart." Regina would not be dissuaded.

"Then why don't you just rip it out? You're good at that." Eugene spat at her and hauled himself to his feet, planting himself between Rachel and Regina.

"I'm a little rusty, can I do a test run on you?" Regina lifted her hand and stepped towards him. Daniel hauled her back.

"Stop it!" He spun her to face him. "Stop this now."

"I can't!" Regina shook him off. "This is who I am."

"No it's NOT!" Daniel thundered at her. "You can't drive me away, not like this, not with this stupid show you're putting on, so stop it! I'm NOT going anywhere! What do I have to do to get you to believe me?!"

"I'm not sure, maybe it's the same thing I have to do to get you to believe _me_." Regina turned back to Rachel, dismissing Daniel for the moment. "The ultrasound?"

Rachel heaved a sigh and Eugene turned to look at her.

"No!" He threw his arms wide. "No way! She's crazy!"

"Yes, she is," Rachel agreed, "but she's not dangerous. Not to us."

"Our front door disagrees!" Eugene waved at it though it looked perfectly normal.

"If she wanted us dead, no one would ever find the bodies." Rachel glanced at Regina who didn't seem offended by the conversation in the slightest. Most likely because it was true. "If I show you the ultrasound, you'll be appeased?"

"It's possible." Regina nodded shortly. She was still struggling with the need to peel something apart right down to the bone, but she was slowly winning her sanity back.

"Well, then, it's settled. This way." Rachel spun away and headed deeper into the house.

Regina stepped around Eugene like he was a piece of furniture and Daniel followed, apologising for her.

Rachel led them all into her home office and tapped her computer into life. She rummaged amongst her purse sitting on the chair and pulled out a pen drive. Slotting it into the USB port, she brought up the video files of the ultrasound.

"You have this at home?" Regina's voice was a study in neutrality. Getting the blood lust to recede was no small undertaking.

"I have it for further study."

"You didn't tell me that." Daniel spoke, beginning to get worried himself. "You said it was fine."

"It IS fine. That's what is so unusual." Rachel reached over to switch on the flatscreen television she had mounted on the wall and then the video of the ultrasound suddenly flared to life on it.

Daniel watched with fascination, the magic in this world didn't come from sorcerers and witches, but it was certainly just as fantastic. To him at least.

"What do you mean?" Regina folded her arms over her chest to restrain herself. Both Daniel and Eugene stood behind her and –while she could just about handle Daniel being there- Eugene being where she couldn't see him had set her internal terror alert to Arterial Spray Red.

"Well, for all intents and purposes, Daniel is recovering from open heart surgery. He should be flat on his back and doped up on morphine still, not out and about throwing brawlers headlong out of bars."

"Sorry?" Daniel failed to see how his healthiness was a bad thing.

"The point is, your body isn't acting in a way that is normal. Which means I can't predict it, which means I have no idea what's going on or what's coming next." Rachel shrugged her shoulders. "So I brought this home to take a better look."

"What did you see?" Regina's lips pressed together and she practically vibrated with impatience.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?" Regina arched a brow and looked at the ultrasound. The picture was grayscale and a little fuzzy but even she could see outlines and shapes. Something pulsing. Like a heart.

"Well, all internal organs were present and correct but it was the absence of something that was so conspicuous." Rachel pointed to the pulsing thing in the ultrasound. "This is Daniel's heart. Strong, healthy, good pulse…no scarring."

She looked at her audience and realised that they weren't following.

"Daniel's chest should be riddled with scar tissue. As far along in his recovery as his demeanour suggests, you should see _walls_ of scars from where Whale opened him up and went digging around. There's none of that."

"What about the heart itself?" Regina pressed on. "Is it…abnormally sized? It did come from someone else after all."

"Aside from the distinct LACK of things wrong with it, there's nothing abnormal with Daniel's new ticker. It's large, but he's a big guy, it's got four chambers, goes like a steam engine and seems to cope with any amount of strain that a body could put on it. Your man here is as about as healthy as anyone has a right to be."

Regina let out a slow and shuddering breath. She smiled.

Hyde's heart had been HUGE. She'd needed both hands to haul it out of his chest, to wrestle it from within his ribcage. Easily twice the size, nearly thrice, that of a regular man's heart.

"What about immortality?"

Regina's eyes snapped open at Daniel's words.

"What about it?" Rachel frowned.

"Regina says that people of a certain strength stop aging. Could that happen to me?"

Rachel hummed in the back of her throat and switched her television off. She spun her pen that she had used as a pointer over and over in her hand.

"That would mean…regeneration at the cellular level the likes of which I've never seen. I would say that's science fiction but so is raising the dead."

"Science fiction like having open heart surgery with no scarring afterwards?"

"You _should_ be on a cocktail of anti-rejection meds as well…and you've never needed them." Rachel planted her hands on her hips and shook her head sharply. "This is conjecture. There's no way for me to be sure in a matter of days. It would take _years_ to see what effects were –or in this case, weren't- occurring. I have no idea how to test for immortality."

"I do." Daniel reached out, snagging Regina's sword from where it was sheathed at her hip, and drew it with a hiss.

"Daniel!" Regina realised what he was about but even her magic wasn't fast enough to stop him from laying the blade over the back of his forearm and dragging it across.

Daniel hissed at the pain and blood welled.

"Oh my god, Daniel, no!" Regina rushed forward, intending to clap her hands over the wound and seal it but Rachel grabbed her wrist and stopped her.

"It's not life threatening, let me see." Rachel drew Daniel's arm closer, intending for a cursory examination before she fetched her gloves but...

"Holy crap." Eugene murmured, looking over his wife's shoulder to see Daniel's arm.

It was healed.

Not completely, the cut hadn't disappeared, it was a raised pink welt, but it was sealed. The blood…he seemed to be sweating it _in_ the way. Absorbing it back into his skin.

"Incredible." Rachel breathed.

"Stupid!" Regina shoved Daniel in the chest.

"No. It was the only way to know." Daniel caught Regina's hands when she tried to shove him again. "This is good."

"In what way?!"

"Now you're out of excuses." Daniel smiled at her and Regina's temper had taken all it was going to take.

With a wave of her hand she disappeared them both, sending Daniel back to his room in Granny's and her to her kitchen. She was too much of a mess to deal with him right now.

Which left Eugene and Rachel in her study waving purple smoke out of their faces.

"I don't think I like your friends." Eugene coughed and Rachel snorted.

"I _know_ I don't like yours."


	16. Chapter 16

**Hey, you gaaaaiiiizzz!**

**I'm back!**

**I know i said i was going to start updating on Tuesdays -and i am- but i'm working tomorrow because...my boss likes fucking with me i suppose :/ **

**ANYWAY! My holiday started off rubbish (no running water or broadband, i had to wash in the sink like some kind of animal) but was improved by the food. Then the drinking and i got my tattoo finished! :D So now i'm peeling, but still in good spirits. Managed to tweak the next couple of chapters for this and have come up with no less than TWO new stories for OUaT and i was like NOOOOOOO! I need to finish this one first! So just restricting myself to plotting them so far. One of them is a crossover with How to Train Your Dragon (frickin love that movie) and the other is an Outlaw Queen fic with a twist. **

**Replies; thanks to everyone that doesn't have an account and takes the time to review, those with accounts, expect a PM from me in the future. **

**But, hey, guess what, Reggie and Danny are going on a date!**

**Sort of. **

**I know a lot of people are getting pissy with how long it's taking Regina to get over herself, but this is her starting to do it. Promise. Don't want to give too much away, but things start to get wild from here on out. This is the last quiet chapter.**

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter 16 – Princesses and Ponies**

"Mom, you're here!" Henry waved as he led a placid pinto out of the stables.

Regina smiled and waved back, he smile faltering a little when David appeared around the other side of the horse, a tense look on his face.

"Tie him up over there, Henry. Just like a showed you." David spoke to his grandson and the hurried towards Regina.

"I have to go."

"But I just got here." Regina glanced over at Henry attempting a quick release knot. "Have you already taken him out?"

"No. I need you to. There's something going on at the diner, Granny wants a word."

"Is it serious?" Regina dropped her hands into her pockets.

"I'll know more when I get there, but can you take over from me? Henry was really looking forward to riding today."

"He was looking forward to spending time with you." Regina shrugged. "He worships you."

David grinned suddenly.

"Really?"

"Really." Regina made a production of rolling her eyes. "My best efforts are wasted on him. He still insists on emulating you despite his superior intelligence."

David laughed and Regina noticed she was pleased when the tension eased from his shoulders a little. He nodded.

"I was looking forward to today too." David scrubbed a hand through his hair and huffed out a breath.

"You look tired." Regina frowned. "You're going to burn out."

"Prince Charming does not burn out."

"Yes, but David Nolan might." Regina reached out and tugged him to a halt by the lapel of his jacket when he moved to pass her. Her frown deepened. "You can't keep doing this. Sheriff, Mayor and Agony Aunt all in one. I can't have you collapsing when you should be looking after Henry. You need help."

"I have help."

"No, you have peasants." Regina corrected him firmly. "People you delegate to. You need someone who can help with the delegating."

"Yes, well, my current partner in crime is somewhat unavailable. Being a world away and all. The former sheriff with her." David sucked in a breath and brightened his tone when he realised he was snapping at her. Far from looking offended, Regina merely blinked at him and waited it out.

Regina had faced down dragons, ogres and warlocks-oh-my, David's temper was something like a kitten spitting at her in contrast.

"My point is, you need someone who can offer you real help, take on the night shift, as it were."

"And who would you suggest? No one else in this town has experience in ruling _and_ is sane." David scowled at her.

"Granny? That woman could herd cats. Rapunzel? She was a queen before she came here and a damn good one from what I hear. Or there's always…"

"You."

Regina froze and her eyes darted to his. She blinked at him and then laughed.

"Don't be ridiculous!"

"Why not?!" David threw up his hands. "You've got plenty of experience under your belt, you know how to do everything already and people won't constantly badger you to do stuff because they know you're too mean to cave."

"David, people _hate_ me. They don't want me as their mayor."

"We're not exactly a democracy, Regina, and what I say goes. So, you're going." He squared his shoulders and drew himself up to his full height. "To the Mayor's office. To help me delegate stuff."

Regina clipped her teeth together when she realised he –him, David Nolan, Prince Charming- was giving _her_ an order. By royal command no less.

Well, wasn't that just adorable?

"You'll have riots in the street."

"Don't care."

"There are factions, David, factions that could benefit from making you look weak. You make an alliance with me and you'll dig your own grave."

"People already think we're allies, remember? That was your doing."

Regina scowled. Yes, that one had been her fault.

"As made evident by your continued presence here, not all of my evil schemes worked, obviously there are still a few duds."

"I'm in charge, do as you're told."

"Being in charge is like being a lady," Regina informed him, "if you have to tell someone you are, you're not."

"Whatever." David growled at her. "Will you help or not?"

Regina twisted her mouth and looked over at Henry petting his horse, chatting inanely to it. She thought for a moment and then heaved a sigh.

"Not with the Mayoral side of things, that would give me too much power over people's lives again. They'll never accept it and the last thing you need is a rebellion or someone getting it into their heads that they want to test my non-existent patience with a coup." Regina hunched her shoulders and shrugged. "They might accept me as a glorified enforcer though. Deputise me."

"What?" David looked askance at her. "You want a gun?"

Regina blinked at him.

"David," she spoke carefully, mindful that he was stupid, had been born that way and couldn't really help it, "think on how much power I would have to give up should I limit myself to a gun."

"Right." David huffed a sigh and twisted his mouth. "I dunno."

"Believe me, people will be a lot more comfortable with me threatening them physically rather than fiscally. As Mayor, I would be in charge of taxes, the town treasury and distribution of funds. I would _make_ the laws rather than simply enforce them. It is important that someone would at least give the impression of outranking me."

David measured her a long moment and then spoke warily.

"You're still gonna help. Right?"

"Yes." Regina smiled indulgently. "I shall continue to save your skin when it comes to paperwork and actually running my little kingdom."

"Great!" David brightened considerably and clapped his hands together, rubbing them together gleefully. "I'll rustle you up a badge and a uniform."

"I'm not wearing a uniform."

"You're wearing a uniform."

"David…"

"That would be 'boss' now."

"It'll be 'hospitalised' if you don't watch your tone." Regina informed him coolly but he just grinned with her.

"If you wear the uniform it makes you part of my team." He said softly. "That'll help with getting people to accept you as well."

"They're never going to accept me." Regina looked away from him but this time he grabbed her jacket and stopped her from walking away.

"Regina, I'm not going to argue that but _I _accept you. You're my deputy now." He nodded with that goofy smile of his. "We're a team."

Regina stared at him for a long moment and shook her head slowly.

"How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Get people to…believe in you?" Regina waved her hand helplessly as if that would explain. "I'm a paranoid psychopathic bitch and _I _want to trust you! It's crazy."

"I dunno. Just try to live up to it, I guess." He shrugged, grinning and he did look better. Lighter. Regina was a little alarmed that she had just been pinned with the responsibility of a piece of his happiness.

She immediately felt scatty and panicked at the prospect of failing him and tried to summon the cold cruelty that would allow her not to care but…gods damn it, it would be like kicking a puppy and Regina had never –not with all her sins- thought to commit wanton animal cruelty.

"Right, now I really gotta go. I'll see you later." David touched his hand to her arm in farewell, turning to call out to Henry before he went, and left Regina alone with her thoughts in the yard as he drove away.

"Mom? Mom? MOM!"

"What?" Regina whirled, jumpy, and softened when she saw it was Henry tugging at her.

"You okay?"

"Yes, honey, just thinking." Regina smoothed his hair down absently, not realising he only allowed it because it soothed her. She rallied herself quickly and threw herself into this precious time with her boy. "So, this is your horse?"

"Yeah, his name is Tonto and he's really cool." Henry beckoned her closer to his gelding and Regina smiled, following dutifully after him.

Worrying about her newfound responsibilities as David's friend could wait. She would focus on her time with Henry for now.

"So," Regina stood by Tonto's head and stroked his cheek, "what do you know about riding horses?"

"Face that way." Henry pointed at Tonto's head and Regina threw back her head and laughed, the tension of dealing with David melting away.

She had missed this. Forgetting. Henry let her forget. For a few moments, just with him, she was only a mother. With him she was just 'mom' and that was enough.

"Yes," she chuckled, "yes, that is absolutely right. Okay, good place to start it proper attire…"

Regina threw herself into the lesson, loving every second of it. Henry was so eager to learn and –she hoped- not just because he wanted to be a knight but maybe, just maybe, because she was his teacher.

In no time at all, they were in the paddock and Henry was circling her aboard Tonto.

David had chosen well. The gelding was about seven with a sweet and patient temperament but there was a streak of mischief in him. He had enough of a personality to be a challenge but so much that he might throw Henry just for the hell of it.

So…maybe Charming wasn't a _complete_ idiot.

"Alright, very good." Regina smiled, so proud of her son, watching him walk. She considered a moment. "You want to try a trot?"

"Yeah!" Henry beamed at her but then his smile slipped a little. "He won't get tired?"

"Oh, no," Regina shook her head, pleased at Henry's concern for his animal, "we've barely been going an hour. Some horses can run for days at a time."

"Really?" Henry drew Tonto to a halt, like she had taught him and tilted his head. "I didn't know that. Do you know everything about horses?"

"No." Regina shook her head and approached, stroking Tonto's neck and correcting Henry's posture with a few gentle nudges, he had a tendency to let his toes slip down. "Not nearly."

"Must be great to be so good at something." Henry leaned forward on the pommel of the saddle, stretching his legs a little and then returned to his seat. Regina tilted her head at the wistful tone in his voice.

"Henry, you're good at things."

"Not like you." Henry looked out over the rolling pastures beyond the fence of the paddock. "Not like David or Emma. You guys are awesome."

"Well, that's very flattering, Henry, but you can't compare yourself to us. We're all adults…some of us in excess of sixty years old." She muttered the last to herself and rested her hand on the toe of his boots. "Aside from that, we have years of experience and _practice_ at doing the things we're good at. Aside from the fact that you're just starting, you can already do marvellous things that I couldn't even attempt."

"Like what?" Henry looked at her warily and she realised…she realised she didn't praise him. Not enough. Not nearly enough.

How had that happened? Regina tapped her fingers on the toe of his boot as she watched him. How could that possibly have happened? She was SO proud of him. Massively so. His smarts, his resourcefulness, his integrity, everything about him. Yes, it had hurt that he'd applied all that to ruining her life, but she was a canny enough bitch to recognise a son worthy of her when she saw him.

"Your drawings, Henry." Regina spoke softly of the thing she loved most. The reason she had allowed him those stupid comic books. "You're a wonderful artist. Your characters come to life, your story telling is intelligent and witty and…they move, Henry. Your story's move in the mind when they don't in the eye."

"How would you know?" He frowned at her and her eyes skated away from his.

"I…I broke into the school to look at your portfolio. You didn't want me there for the art show and…I didn't want to embarrass you so I had a meeting scheduled that day and I went along…after." Regina stroked Tonto's neck and tensed, waiting for the judgement.

"You…broke into the school?"

"Yes."

"For me? I mean, to see my stuff? 'Cause you didn't want to embarrass me, even when I was mean to you?"

Regina smiled wanly.

"Family means looking out for someone even if you get banged up a little bit doing it." Regina shrugged a shoulder. "It was only my pride."

Henry giggled and she smiled. He sobered after a moment.

"I thought you hated my art. You always nagged me to do my math homework."

"That is because I am a mother, it is my prerogative to nag and math is an important skill. You were already good at art and your math grade was slipping…but, no, I didn't hate your art. I liked the colours. The…the cat was my favourite. The one that got stung by the electric fence and got super powers." Regina nodded, grinning.

"I threw that away."

"I know. I rescued it." Regina sucked in a breath and shook her head. "My point is; you are a clever, talented, young man and you do me proud. Anyone who says different is getting a knuckle sandwich. Now, are we trotting or not?"

Henry grinned down at her and nodded.

"Trotting."

"Good, turn him out and get him back into that bouncy walk." Regina backed off and stilled when she felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise.

Turning, she saw Daniel leaning against the fence, watching her with a grin on his face.

"Regina."

"Daniel."

"What's _she_ doing here?!"

Regina blinked when a torrent of red hair swung out from behind Daniel and a pair of frosty blue eyes glared at her over the top of the fence. The fierce scowl from the freckled face made Regina arch a brow and she almost growled.

A _princess._

Super.

"I thought you werenae allowed out o' yer house." The girl, a couple of years older than Henry, hoisted herself up to straddle the fence and glare down at Regina.

"Really?" Regina took in the red hair, the freckles, the attitude…one of the Dunbrochs. Merida. "You and which army could keep me there?"

"I'd no' need an army." Merida snorted, folding her arms over her chest. "I've faced a witch afore. Ye'd be no different."

Regina just smirked and switched her attention back to Daniel.

"The last of our party, I take it."

"She's not as annoying as she comes off." Daniel shrugged a shoulder and Regina resisted the urge to climb the fence and then him.

Breeches. Oh me, oh my, _breeches_. Knee high leather boots, a midnight blue tee shirt that sculpted to his arms and chest…Regina looked away before she started drooling.

"Oi!" Merida punched Daniel in the shoulder and he smirked.

"You're being a brat and you know it."

"She's the Evil Queen!"

"And you'll be Going Home, if you don't watch yourself." Daniel levelled a look at her. "Go and get Angus if you plan on riding at all."

Merida scowled at him, tossed her hair over her shoulder (which took some doing and both hands) and then slung her leg over the fence and dropped to the ground. She dashed across the paddock and –before anyone could stop her- right under Tonto's neck and over the other side.

Tonto gave a whinny of irritation and shied. He was a placid enough horse, but even that had its limits.

Regina's chest only unclenched when Henry employed the lessons he had already learned and reined his animal in. Hushing him with soothing sounds and clapping a hand against his neck when he quieted.

Regina turned to look at Daniel. Hard.

"She's not as bad as she's pretending to be." Daniel spoke in his defence and climbed the fence too.

Regina was momentarily distracted by such actions in such fitting trousers but quickly rallied her temper again.

"Really?" She planted her hands on her hips. "At the moment, I'm considering taking up hunting once more."

Daniel frowned a little as he approached her and Regina elaborated.

"Daniel, the only thing I ever hunted was princesses. She'd better watch herself."

"Mom, I'm okay." Henry reined Tonto in behind her and Regina turned to look up at him.

"I know you are, dear, but it's not about being hurt, it's about a lack of respect. That girl is spoiled and she needs some manners taught."

"She's just blowing off steam." Daniel tried to defuse the situation but Regina was having none of it.

"She'll get someone hurt if she keeps it up." Regina's tone of voice made it clear the person most in danger would be Merida herself if she continued to tug the tiger of Regina's temper by the tail.

"Mom, please? I just wanna go riding."

Regina glanced up at Henry and softened a little.

"Alright, fine." She relented. "I'll behave if she does."

"She's a child." Daniel reminded her.

"That's no excuse. Henry's a child and he's already defeated an Evil Queen. Never underestimate the plucky child protagonist, Daniel. It never ends well." Regina strode to the other side of the paddock and climbed the fence herself.

"Where are you going?" Daniel called after her, a little concerned.

"To find us some horses." Regina disappeared into the opposite end of the stable block and muttered dark mutters to herself.

The last time she'd gone on a ride with a precocious princess, her entire life had been ruined.

Her afternoon was not shaping up the way she had hoped it would at all.

**On the Trail**

"Gods above, Regina, you couldn't have picked a more fidgety animal?" Daniel eyeballed Regina's mount when she shied again and danced across the path.

"She reminded me of Rocinante." Regina admitted after a moment, tightening her grip on the reins and bringing the mare to heel. _Again._

"In looks, perhaps, but Rocinante was as sweet tempered and willing as you can get. That beast's more than a few bales short of a harvest."

"She's fine." Regina sighed when Flicka, the highest strung sorrel male you ever did see, gave another little rear and whinny and pranced like a show pony on crystal meth. "She just wants to run."

"She's not the only one."

A sullen voice issued from behind them and Regina twisted to see a sulky princess astride a huge black Clydesdale who was far too big for her. The brute was named Angus and was apparently Merida's horse from back in the Enchanted Forest. He seemed nice enough, it was a pity the same couldn't be said for his rider.

"We can't run here." Regina informed Merida coolly. For what felt to be the five hundredth time. "The trail is too narrow, it's not clear and –whilst it's no never mind to me if you are thrown and break your neck- Angus could get hurt."

"We can gallop when we get to the beach." Daniel promised Merida. _Again_.

"How much further?" Merida heaved a huge sigh and flopped over Angus' neck in a show of blatant idiocy in Regina's opinion. Should Angus be spooked, Merida would have little to no hope of staying astride him.

"Not far." Regina's voice was stony and she struggled to think of another reason for why she _shouldn't_ dangle certain princesses from the tallest tree branch until they screamed themselves hoarse and begged to be let down.

So far she was coming up empty, but she was confident that she would either think of a reason or that Daniel or Henry would talk her out of it before it got too far.

Reminding herself of her son's unusually quiet presence, Regina forcibly reined Flicka in, letting Daniel and Silver pass her, glaring at Merida and Angus and fell into step with Henry and Tonto.

"How are you doing?"

"I…I'm okay." Henry seemed to squirm a moment in the saddle and Regina frowned.

"Are you sore? Do you want to go back?"

A derisive snort issued from in front of them and Henry shook his head wildly, turning crimson under his helmet.

"No. I'm fine."

Regina frowned and followed his gaze.

Merida had twisted in her saddle, dropping the reins in a completely idiotic and now familiar show of arrogance and turned sharply away from glaring back at them when Regina tilted her head in silent warning.

Ah.

"Henry," Regina murmured to her son, "it occurs to me that you have terrible taste."

"What do you mean?"

Regina cast her son a look and Henry ducked his head, flushing an even darker red.

Regina softened and reached out, squeezing his shoulder. She couldn't think of anything to say, this was not a thing that she could discuss with him…he really did need a father.

Regina found herself bizarrely glad that Henry had David and dropped her hand only when Daniel reined Silver to a halt and twisted to look back at her.

"Which way?"

"Left." Regina nudged Flicka with her heels and put up with the flighty mare's prancing so that she drew level with Daniel and his white stallion. "The beach is this way."

Regina had just about resigned herself to the afternoon being interminable but survivable (for some at least) but that all changed when they rounded the bend in the trail and the stretch of gold sand that was the Storybrooke beach came into view.

"Yes! Gallopin' time!" Merida whooped. "C'mone, Henry!"

Merida gathered her reins in one hand and whipped them over Angus' neck sending them slapping down over Tonto's rump with a crack of leather on leather.

Tonto, badly startled, squealed and reared.

Flicka shrilled a whinny too, dancing off the path, so Regina could do nothing when Tonto caught the bit between his teeth and bolted.

"Henry!" Regina watched her son fly by on his horse, closely followed by the black avalanche of muscle that was Angus and her eyes met Daniel's for one stark moment.

Regina didn't hesitate. She snatched up a handful of mane, rose in her stirrups, sank her heels into Flicka's sides and let the mare with a brain filled with springs have her head.

Flicka's ears swivelled forward, her legs lifted and she shot off at a speed that caught even Regina's breath.

She heard Silver and Daniel pounding after her but she was really more focussed on catching Henry and Tonto.

Tonto had the lead on them, and he was no slouch in the speed department, but Henry wasn't urging him on like Regina was her mare. She caught up within seconds, running neck and neck with Tonto.

"It's alright, Henry, I'm here." Regina stretched out towards Tonto's bridle, intending to force him to take his bit.

"No, mom, Merida!"

"That brat is fine." Regina growled when Henry's voice caused Flicka to shy like the airheaded thing she was. She wrestled the mare closer again.

"No, the town boundary, mom. It's close."

Regina's head snapped up and she abruptly realised where they were.

Shit.

Henry was right, the boundary wasn't half a mile ahead of them and Merida was already thumbnail tall in the distance.

"Go, I'm fine." Henry nodded to her when she looked at him and –she realised with a mix of pride and panic- that he was. He wasn't struggling against the strength of Tonto, nor screaming his head off, he was waiting for the panic and the energy to run out and then he'd slow Tonto down like it had been his intention to let him bolt the whole time.

"Alright." Regina rose in the saddle again and slapped the reins on Flicka's neck. "Fly!"

And Flicka _did_.

If Regina had thought their pace before was fleet, it was nothing compared to the ground eating stride the mare put on as she seemed to want to snatch a bite out of the horizon.

Flicka's mane and tail streamed out behind her in a fire coloured banner, her hooves thundered on the ground and –had Regina not been so worried about idiot princesses trying to magically lobotomise themselves- she'd have thoroughly enjoyed herself.

The sand passed under them in a blur, the salty wind seared her face and the surf roared against the beach.

"Merida, stop!" Regina called out, closing the gap between herself and the princess by the second.

Merida half turned, enough to show she'd heard, and then leaned further over her horse's neck. Urging him on.

Regina snarled and urged Flicka faster still.

How did she always end up doing this? Surely this should be a job for Charming, rescuing princesses and all that.

"Stop, Merida." Regina hurried Flicka alongside Angus and tried to lean across and take Angus' head as she had Tonto's. "You're going to get hurt."

"I ken what I'm dain'!" Merida slapped Regina's hand away with the reins and Regina swore.

"The boundary, Merida! We're too close."

"Rubbish!" Merida steered the pounding Angus away, nearly letting Regina fall beneath his hooves when she missed his bridle again.

"Screw this." Regina gripped the reins in both hands and hauled Flicka right into Angus' path.

The big black gelding squealed and shied away from the fiery mare as the smaller horse bodychecked him into the sea. The surf splashed up over them, dousing them in saltwater, causing Merida to splutter and gasp and Regina threw herself from the saddle. She caught Merida around the waist, dragging her from her horse's back and dunked them both into the ocean.

Merida struggled like a cat in a Schrodinger experiment and Regina earned a kick in the stomach for her troubles.

Yeesh, at least Snow had known how to be rescued.

Regina gasped to the surface in time to see a fist swinging for her face and ducked back on reflex.

"You witch! How DARE you touch me!" Merida swung for Regina again and –whilst Regina appreciated moxy as much as the next person (alright, so that was a lie)- she had no interest in earning a black eye from a thirteen year old.

"Idiot girl!" Regina slapped Merida's hand harmlessly away, grabbed the little…_princess_ by the scruff and dunked her under the water.

"Witch!" Merida shrieked when she was lifted out again. "Hag! I'll see ye-glubblubllubble!"

Regina dunked her again.

And again and again.

"Had enough?" Regina held up Merida, who now more closely resembled a half drowned orange mophead than anything else, and gave her a little shake.

"You…you…" Merida spluttered and tried to get all of her hair out the way. "You knocked me over."

"Well spotted." Regina didn't loosen her hold on Merida, fully prepared to douse her again should the situation require it. "You could have been killed. What's worse, you could have hurt Henry!"

"It was just a wee gallop." Merida finally managed to dig her way out of her sodden hair.

"Today was the first day Henry has ever ridden."

"Really?"

Regina stilled at that. So…well, now she might feel a little guilty.

"Daniel didn't tell you?"

"No." Merida coughed and Regina realised they were both hip deep in frigid Maine waters.

She dragged the girl ashore and plopped her down onto the beach above the waterline. Flopping down to sit beside her and look out at the grey blue sea. She thought about apologising but realised that she _really_ didn't want to.

"You could have hurt him." Regina said instead. "You could have hurt _yourself_."

"It's _your_ fault!" Merida shoved more of her hair back and glared daggers at Regina.

Regina's look almost caused steam to rise from the wet princess and Merida hurriedly backpedalled.

"I mean…mum's never liked me doing stuff that's no' 'fit for a princess'." Merida straightened her posture and put on a more cultured tone in her voice, Regina smirked when she realised she was mimicking her mother. "That and school and the bar and…today's the first time I've bin allowed tae do my ain thing and –even then- I had tae go with Danny."

Regina looped her arms around her knees and thought about how desperate she'd been to leap onto Rocinante's back and gallop as far and as fast as they could…shit. Her life had been a lot easier before she'd learned empathy.

"You could have asked." Regina looked out at the ocean. "I know what it's like to…I'd have galloped with you had you just asked."

Regina was aware that the girl was staring at her like she'd grown another head, but gave no reaction to it.

"Oh, aye, I'll bet the Evil Queen kens fine whit it's like to be told what to do and where to go and how to be and…"

"And who to marry?" Regina looked Merida right in the eye and the young princess faltered.

They both hurriedly looked away from one another and Regina huffed out a sigh.

"I'd like it if you apologised to Henry." Regina spoke after a long moment.

She hadn't meant to say the last. The last thing a young girl needed to hear was about Regina being sold into marriage and going completely mad. She wasn't good with children either, they had always been so much harder to fool than adults. They had always seen through her masks.

"Not to you?"

"I wouldn't have been hurt." Regina glanced at her. "I'd have let you run beyond the border before I hurt myself."

Regina was forced to look down when cool fingers hesitantly plucked at the sleeve of her shirt.

Regina looked down and –it was only when she saw the line of red dripping down her arm- she noticed the cut. The stinging pain of salt water in an open wound assaulted her like a rock to the back of her head and Regina hissed.

"I'm sorry, I…"

"Don't worry about it." Regina peeled back her soggy sleeve to inspect the damage and bared her teeth in a grimace when she plucked the sheared loop of metal out of her flesh. It was from the horses' tack, a buckle from the reins probably, and it must have got snagged when she tackled Merida from her saddle.

"Yer bleeding!"

"It's not fatal." Regina chuckled at the concern from the usually unflappable princess.

"Quick! Magic it closed!" Merida sat hurriedly up on to her knees and reached for Regina's arm, her fingers hovering uncertainly. "It'll get infected."

"Saltwater is a natural antiseptic." Regina let Merida look at the wound. It stung and it looked worse than it was because the water on her skin diluted the bleeding, making it seem like she was about to bleed out, but she certainly wasn't about to lose her arm over it. "It's fine, Merida. I've taken a lot worse and lived to tell the tale."

"Mom!" Henry threw himself down off Tonto's back, staggering when his legs felt a little numb, but hurried to her side. "You're bleeding!"

"I'm fine, Henry." Regina stood and dusted the seat of her jodhpurs off. She was becoming increasingly aware of how uncomfortable it was to be in wet clothes.

"Keep it above your heart!" Henry turfed his helmet onto the sand, gripped her elbow, raising her arm and the small wound above the level of her heart.

Regina sighed but put up with the fussing. She really was fine.

"It looks worse than it is." Regina made a wordless sound of protest too late when Henry shrugged out of his shirt and tore into the sleeve, shredding it into bandages.

"Why haven't you magicked it closed?"

"I need to disinfect it first. Which is better done the old fashioned way." Regina moved to take the strips of shirt from him but he batted her fingers away and bent his head to the task of carefully bandaging her up.

Regina thought it was adorable.

"What happened?" Daniel's voice cut through the air like a knife and everyone fell silent at his approach.

He had caught both Flicka and Angus and held their reins in his hands, steering Silver with nothing more than his knees. Flicka's reins had indeed been worked loose in all the shenanigans and were missing the buckle that joined the two lengths of leather together.

"My arm got caught on a loose buckle. It's just a scratch."

"Is it really?" Daniel may have been talking to Regina but his gaze landed heavily on Merida.

The girl hunched her shoulders and stared down at her toes.

"Daniel." Regina moved to take Flicka's reins from him. "It's nothing."

"You're bleeding."

"Daniel, I'm a woman, I can bleed for a week and not die. It's barely a scratch." Regina's hand rested briefly on his boot. "Don't make more of this than it is or you'll scare them."

Daniel's only response was to swing down out of the saddle and thrust Angus' reins at Merida. With both hands free, he turned his attention to Regina's arm and peeled back the crude bandages to inspect the wound. He hissed in sympathy when he saw it.

"Regina, cats scratch, you scratch an itch, _this_ is a hand long and bleeding quite freely."

"Which will stop of you bandage it once more." Regina knew Daniel was right. The cut was quite deep, an angry rip because of how blunt the buckle had been as it gouged into her. "Daniel, we both know I've survived much worse. Just put the bandage back on and stop scaring the children."

"They can do with a little scaring." Daniel muttered in a low and displeased tone, but moved to redo the bandaging.

"She's just a child. A bratty one, but a child nonetheless." Regina closed her eyes so she didn't wince as the bandage wound tighter around her arm, squeezing the cut ruthlessly closed.

She could feel the burn of her magic attacking it, resetting her body to its original shape. The reason she hadn't 'magicked' it closed was that she needn't bother. Her body, the magic coursing through it the same way everyone else had blood, would take care of itself.

That and how quickly she healed would tell her how close she was to being immortal. If she was wrong and she hadn't reached that level of power yet then…well, she'd deal with that bridge if she came to it.

Daniel grunted in the back of his throat when he deemed his bandaging sufficient that her arm wasn't going to suddenly fall off. His fingers trailed down her arm and he squeezed her hand briefly before turning to look down at Merida.

"This afternoon is over. We're heading back."

Merida's head snapped up and her mouth opened but one look at Daniel's expression had her clipping her teeth together.

"Henry, you're going to ride with me, we're cantering back. Merida, take Tonto's reins, Regina, try not to gut yourself on any passing branches, hmm?"

"Daniel!" Regina was on the verge of laughing. Until she realised he was serious. "Really?"

"Really." Daniel's voice was flat, he was already astride Silver and helping Henry up to sit behind him.

"I'm fine, we needn't cut the afternoon short because…"

Regina trailed off when Daniel leaned down suddenly and was almost nose to nose with her.

"Regina, get on your damn horse before I sling you over my knee and then you'll have to ride home with a sore rump as well as an arm."

Regina's eyes widened and her brows rose. A smirk kicked at her lips and she spun away from him.

"Promises, promises." She muttered to herself and took Flicka's reins from Merida's hold.

Pulling them back over the mare's neck, Regina set her grip to the pommel of the saddle and hoisted herself up, nearly slipping when pain lanced up her arm.

Merida saved her, lunging over Flicka's back from Angus' saddle and managing to tip Regina forward over the saddle rather than flat onto her back in the sand.

Regina glanced hurriedly over to see that Daniel was distracted by talking to Henry and allowed herself a moment to favour her sore arm. Red bloomed behind the bandage and she grimaced in annoyance. Alright, so it might be a little more serious than she had let on.

"Thank you." Regina turned to Merida who still sat sheepishly on her horse, holding Tonto's reins in her other hand.

"I'm sorry." Merida looked out at the sea as she spoke. Evidently not used to apologising for anything.

"I'll be fine." Regina nodded.

"Ladies." Daniel reminded them that he was irritated with everyone except maybe the horses.

"We're coming." Regina retorted, beginning to buck at his tone.

"See that you do." Daniel wheeled Silver, urged the stallion into a trot and then a rolling canter.

"I didnae realise he was so bossy." Merida let Tonto's reins out so the gelding would have enough leeway to run alongside Angus.

"Neither did I." Regina admitted and sighed, settling her injured arm closer to her body. It was going to sting all the way back.

She was never riding with princesses again. It never ended well.

_**The Ugly Duckling**_

"Alright," Regina pulled the handbrake of her car and turned to look at her passengers. "Ugly Duckling stop, get off here for exchanges to homework and door-manning."

"Daniel," Henry leaned forward from the back seat, "do you think Doctor Towers will be here?"

Daniel shoved back the sleeve of his jacket and glanced at his watch. He loved his watch. His own piece of magic. Time keeping was somewhat of an adjustment to him considering he had grown up with time markers such as; dawn, dusk, morning, noon and afternoon.

"She should be finished her shift by now, she usually swings by to see Eugene before heading home."

"Mom, I think we should go in. You should get your arm looked at."

"It's fine, Henry." Regina twisted to look at him. "We disinfected it at the stables and it has clean bandaging. There isn't really anything else to be done for it."

"You were driving one handed, mom."

"I didn't want to pull the bandaging."

"Mom…!" Henry huffed in frustration. "Please."

"Henry, this is the Ugly Duckling, not only am I not welcome here, but I am far more likely to be stabbed than aided. I can go to Doctor Towers tomorrow if it isn't better." Regina frowned when Daniel got out of the car without another word.

What? He was so pissed at her that she didn't get a goodbye?

Regina was distracted from watching Daniel flip the front seat forward to let Merida out by Henry speaking again.

"I learned all about infections in science, mom. They set in real quick. Tomorrow could be too late."

"Henry, it's going to take more than a broken –yipe!" Regina was caught completely off-guard when her door was yanked open and a steel band slid around her from behind.

Her seatbelt was unclipped and she was dragged from within the car all in one motion.

It was only Daniel's familiar scent that saved him from being immolated out of reflex.

"Daniel, put me down!"

"Henry's right, you need it looked at." Daniel grunted when Regina struggled like a cat threatened with a bath.

"Put me down!" Regina twisted again and Daniel was forced to do as he was told when she nearly had his eye out with a stray elbow. He wasn't going to be able to hold onto her that way.

"Finally, that's more –ack!" Regina yelped again when Daniel simply spun her around to face him and then hoisted her over his shoulder in a fireman's hold. She was a lot more helpless like that.

"Daniel, you brute!" Regina's fist hammered on his back and he took as much notice of it as he would rainfall.

"Lock the car, Henry." Daniel instructed the boy as he gaped up at him.

"You'd better run when you put her down." Henry advised, taking the keys from the ignition and doing what he was told. Daniel didn't look like he should be messed with right then.

"Put me down before I turn you into a frog!" Regina threatened by no means idly.

Not that she was really up for such a complex spell with her arm stinging and such a distraction. The mass differential was a bitch. You either had to go with a huge monster frog, fifty frogs or one frog with this bag of gloopy pink mess on the side.

Still, Regina was willing to try.

"Well, you'd have to kiss me to turn me back, so I guess it wouldn't be all bad." Daniel spoke blandly and headed for the front door of the bar.

"Daniel, this is humiliating." Regina twisted, trying to grab at his face and get him to drop her out of reflex.

"Quiet!" Daniel hoisted her higher on his shoulder and nearly coughed the air from her lungs. Regina wheezed and mentally added another few items to the torture list.

"I am NOT going into a strange place ass first." She snarled at him and Henry and Merida both giggled, following behind and trying not to laugh too hard. "And _don't_ think you two won't be treated as accomplices." She levelled a threatening finger at them.

"Maybe you should have just come in by yourself." Henry shrugged.

"Maybe I should have been given the chance to be convinced!" Regina struggled again and was beginning to realise that it really was hopeless and it was also very uncomfortable.

"Evening, lads." Daniel nodded to the men on the door and swung into the bar past their gaping expressions, Merida and Daniel hustling quickly after him.

"Daniel, if you were anyone else I would skin you and have you for a new purse!" Regina –not to be distracted from her diatribe- kept it right up until she was deposited on the floor. Her head spun from the sudden change of altitude, a condition which was worsened when Daniel's hands clapped down on her shoulders and spun her to face the rest of the bar.

Silence rippled throughout the bawdy place and Regina's jaw clenched. She _hated _this. Being put on display and paraded in front of the masses. She knew her expression was about five hundred miles from friendly but was quite unable to do anything about it. Her spine had stiffened to a bar of steel and her jaw a line of granite. She found herself getting wound tighter and tighter and was on the verge of setting fire to something when small fingers found hers.

Regina shivered, throwing off her black mood as a matter of course when she turned to look down at her son.

"Are you alright?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing." Henry smiled. "Don't worry, Daniel won't let anything happen to you. Neither will I."

"That's very sweet, Henry, but if you don't get behind me in the event of a brawl, you'll be grounded until you're collecting social security." Regina squeezed his hand, managing something like a smile for him. "I am perfectly capable of fending for myself."

"_What_ is the meaning of this?!"

Regina spun, yanking Henry behind her, when that voice cut through the murmur that had once more taken up residence in the bar. She found a tall woman with long brown hair bearing down on her with a none too happy expression on her face.

"Daniel, I know you're not due to start for another hour, but you could do yer part to keep the riff raff out until then."

"Eleanor." Daniel greeted her cordially. "Allow me to introduce Regina Mills and her son Henry."

"I know who they are." Eleanor reached out, gripping Merida by the arm and hauling her away from the Evil Queen and her adopted spawn. "What are they doing here?!"

"You said you wanted to meet her." Daniel pulled a confused expression over his face. Deliberately playing the simple stable lad, an act he was well familiar with.

"I did no such bloody thing!" Eleanor hoisted Merida behind her again when the girl tried to skirt her mother and speak to her again. "Get out!" She rounded on Regina, speaking one queen to another.

"Presently." Regina dredged a brittle smile from somewhere and spun on her heel to vacate the premises toot sweet.

"Regina needs medical attention and you _did_ say you wanted to meet her." Daniel's hand settled on the back of Regina's neck to prevent her from going anywhere. "As I was saying; Eleanor Dunbroch, meet Regina Mills. My fiancé."

Eleanor froze midway through opening her mouth to give her employee a blistering talking to and her eyes darted to Regina, who looked to be in physical pain as a result of Daniel's words. She seethed a quiet hiss of breath between her teeth and glared up at him.

"It is beyond me why I love such an idiot." Regina growled.

"You're still gonna get married?!" Henry looked between the two adults.

"No."

"Yes."

Regina and Daniel answered at exactly the same time. Both of them frowned at the other for their idiotic answer.

"Danny, have ye gone soft in the head?" Eleanor asked as tactfully as she knew how. "I know ye havenae been here long, but she's the Evil Queen."

"She is not!" Henry stepped forward and glared up at Eleanor, unable to hold his tongue any longer. "She's my mom and she's getting good and you don't even know her so you can't say anything about her!"

"Henry, it's alright." Regina gently gripped his shoulders and dragged him back a step so he could lean back against her, protecting her.

She resisted the urge to smile. She didn't have a nice smile, it always came across as a smug smirk that put people's hackles up.

"Couldn't have said it better myself." Daniel smiled.

"Ye might have put a 'fluence on the both of them, but ye won't get the chance to do the same to me and mine. Ye're not welcome here. What's more…"

"Mum, stop it!" Merida wrested free of her mother's hold and planted herself between Regina and Eleanor. "She saved ma life!"

"Young lady…what?" Eleanor's eyes swung between Regina and Merida. "What?"

"She's making it sound a lot more heroic than it was." Regina defended herself.

"I was gallopin' on Angus and I nearly crossed the town border. Miss Mills stopped me and saved me from forgettin' who I really am." Merida folded her arms over her chest and stared her mother down. "This isnae the way ye raised me to treat folk that had done me a good turn."

Eleanor, the wind taken from her sails, clenched her jaw and then looked at Regina again.

"She hurt hersel' doin' it too." Merida wouldn't let it lie. "Danny dragged her in here to see if Rachel were in. She needs her arm looked at."

"I owe ye a great debt…majesty." Eleanor had to work to get the words out. "Please, come away in. Yer supper's on us the night."

"Really, there's no need…" Regina trailed off when Daniel leaned down to speak in her ear so low only she would hear.

"Sit and eat some damn dinner, Regina. You saying it was nothing is saying her daughter is nothing and I do _not_ advise that."

"…to call me that. Regina is fine and I would like very much to try some genuine Scottish cooking." Regina forced a smile, one that was mirrored by Eleanor.

Neither of them wanted to be there, but it would seem they had little choice. In that –at least- they were united.

"Rachel's in her usual booth." Eleanor turned to lead them deeper into the bar. "I'm sure she won't mind your company."

It went unsaid that she was the only one with that opinion.

They crossed the bar quickly and Rachel, her head bent to the task of several patients' charts she had brought with her for a working dinner, didn't notice her approach. In fact, she hadn't noticed the entire exchange at the doorway and remained ignorant of her impending patient until Eleanor announced them.

Rachel sat up and smiled a genuine smile (which very nearly floored Regina considering how their last meeting had gone). Her smile disappeared when she saw the bloodied bandage around Regina's forearm.

"Really?!" Rachel thumped back against the bench of the booth and tossed her pen onto the table so hard it bounced clean off it and had to be retrieved by Merida. "I can't leave you alone for five damn minutes without you bleeding everywhere. _You're_ supposed to look after her." She levelled that at Daniel.

"I'd put a collar on her if I thought it would help." Daniel herded Regina into the booth and sat down on the outside of it to prevent her escape.

"I can hear both of you, you know." Regina grumbled.

She was forced to submit to Rachel opening her medical case and then gripping Regina's arm, cutting away the bandaging with practiced moves right there at the dinner table. She knew Regina wouldn't go anywhere else with her.

"What's good to eat here?" Regina asked the question to the table at large and used her free hand to drag a menu closer.

"Mum does good venison." Merida spoke brightly from her place on the other side of the booth. She was sat beside Henry, who seemed to be trying to muscle down his crush to a manageable eight.

"Eleanor cooks?" Regina raised her eyebrows and twisted to look at Daniel. "You can test it first."

"She's not going to poison you." Daniel glared a little. "You caught her off guard, that's all. She's really very nice."

"I'm sure." Regina still hadn't forgiven him for inflicting her on such reluctant hospitality.

"Is venison Bambi?" Henry was studying his own menu.

"Of course not." Regina inhaled a deep breath when Rachel prodded at the wound on her arm. "Venison is Bambi's _mother_."

"Mom!" Henry whined and Regina smirked.

"It's a very tender meat, you'll like it." Regina assured him, knowing from his expression that he probably wouldn't go anywhere near it for the foreseeable future.

"Daniel, hold this." Rachel held out a Maglite and Daniel slung his arm around Regina's shoulders to hold the penlight over her arm and better illuminate what Rachel was looking at. "Ah, there it is. Good grief, you're _sweating_ it out."

"Hmm." Regina made a noncommittal sound which turned to a hiss when Rachel gripped the tiny piece of metal still embedded in Regina's flesh and plucked it free with a pair of tweezers.

With that removed, Regina's magic went to work on the wound with a vengeance and it barely gave Rachel time to pour alcohol all over it –causing some colourful words to spill from Regina- before it sealed itself.

"Remarkable." Rachel murmured, running her finger over the raised scab on Regina's arm. The result of a few minutes' healing. "I never thought it would be possible for a body to do this by itself."

"Fascinating. May I have my arm back?"

"I suppose. So long as you promise to look after it in future."

"I don't go about with a death wish you know." Regina defended herself. "This stuff just seems to…happen to me."

"With alarming regularity." Rachel drawled in agreement.

"I've noticed it's always when I do good things." Regina murmured, doing a scan of the bar, noting the exits and who was paying a little too much attention to their little group. She picked out a couple of drunks to keep a weather eye on but didn't think they'd be a serious threat.

"That's not true." Henry frowned at her.

"Saved Snow's life, fiancé dies." Regina began to tick them off on her fingers ignoring the collective wince the table gave. "Bring fiancé back from the dead, nearly die from death curse. Save _another_ princess, gouge out a chunk of flesh. Whoever said that being nice never hurt anyone deserves to be dragged out into the street and shot. How did all you GOOD people survive long enough to thwart all my evil schemes?!"

"Most good people aren't mad as a hatter." Daniel said conversationally and Regina levelled a look at him.

"That wasn't very nice." Regina didn't deny it though.

"There's a limit." Daniel shrugged. "Seeing your blood has always made my mood less than charitable. Besides, you're _my _lunatic so I'm granted certain allowances."

"Yes." Regina agreed. "You are."

Daniel turned to her with a grin she returned it with a sickening sweetness.

"But make no mistake, my sweet baboo, as soon as I figure out a suiting punishment, you're going to pay for this." She circled her finger to indicate her being trapped in a booth in a bar that she didn't want to be in.

Daniel just smirked at her. His eyes made a lazy tour of her body and she revised her opinion about him needing sweet and gentle from her. His grin was decidedly wolfish.

Another of Regina's excuses not to let him in crumbled to dust with his next words.

"Promises, promises."


	17. Chapter 17

**Aloha!**

**Here's me!**

**Okay, so, i've been bad and haven't replied to everyone that reviewed the last couple of chapters. It's mainly because i forgot and i'm lazy or possibly some mix of both :D**

**Soooo...some Regina in uniform to make up for it?**

**Not much else to say other than it is four in the morning and i'm pretty damn tired. Thank you, insomnia. Things are heating up in the land of my AU and updates may be slow in the next few weeks as i've gone back to rewrite some of these chapters, add new scenes and generally improve it, so i'm a tweaking perfectionist who has a job and attends college, deal with it. Needless to say, they're all going to be awesome improvements that will set your hair on fire and make you all love me :)**

**Big shout out to all the guest reviewers, your input is appreciated as always. DustyKnight, Taradiddle1, Caro, Syed, Moonlight87, FicFan123 (welcome aboard the ship) and BloodyMary2, y'all deserve a bit of public recognition for reviewing all the time. Love, hugs and tummy rubs to all of you XD**

**Bonus points for anyone who gets the Gail Simone reference. **

**As always, read, love, review. **

**Chapter 17 – Wolves in Fridges**

"David?"

Regina cautiously opened the diner and poked her head inside. The bell jangled above her, setting her to flinching her way entirely inside. She scowled at the offending tinkling thing, stuffing her hands into her pockets to try and retain some dignity.

"Regina, through here!"

Regina cautiously approached the bar and stepped behind it winding her way through to the kitchen. She pushed open the door with one hand, the other free at her side ready to palm magic at a second's notice, and stalled when she nearly tripped over the door that lay across the floor.

"Hello." Regina skirted the door, frowning at it and then looked up at the two occupants of the room.

"Good morning, deputy." David nodded to her and Regina's chin kicked up with an unamused expression.

"Really? You're serious about that?"

"As the grave." David nodded, his thumbs hitched in his belt.

"Deputy?" Granny piped up. She was standing inside the walk-in freezer looking out at Regina with decidedly less hostility than Regina had expected.

"Charming's an idiot." Regina nodded by way of explanation.

"I need someone to help me delegate." David spoke to Granny.

"And you thought of her?" Granny frowned.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Regina muttered.

"She actually suggested you first." David smiled at Granny.

"And there was Henry trying to convince me you weren't evil." Granny planted her hands on her hips, glaring at Regina. "Imagine wishing that on an old bird like me."

"What?" Regina defended herself. "This curse was supposed to make you miserable, _you're_ the one who went and made a successful business out of it."

"The point is that Granny, Ruby and Rachel –all of them ideal candidates for the job- have things to do. YOU are a free agent and come with your own firepower. You're doing this." David spoke firmly and Regina looked sideways at Granny.

"Isn't he adorable?"

"Regina…" David looked like he wanted to whine but restrained himself admirably.

"It'd go a long way to convincing folks that you're on the side of angels if you were to officially back, Charming." Granny thought out loud.

Regina huffed a sigh.

"Please, Regina. I can't do this by myself." David tried again and she groaned.

"_Fiiiine_." Regina growled. "This lasts for as long as it takes to get Snow and Miss Swan back. I'll _not_ work for the vaunted Saviour." Regina stuffed her hands in her pockets and looked as ungracious as she could. "Now, what did you want because I've been here for three and a half minutes and I still don't have my triple shot."

"Was that your way of asking for coffee?" Granny spoke with saccharine sweetness.

"Well, if there's some going I certainly won't refuse." Regina spoke primly and stifled a yawn.

After finally escaping the Ugly Duckling and taking Henry back to David's, she had been up for most of the night reading. She had plenty of things to research, after all; immortality, portals between worlds, binding spells on involuntary transformations, memory recovery…the list was growing by the day.

Not to mention several hours plugged into the apple tree trying to tame Storybrooke magic. The sores on her soul had distracted her, but it was an advantage she didn't want to give up on.

"I'll see to it that the savage beast gets her caffeine fix." Granny spoke to David as she moved towards the bar.

"Pot, this is kettle, you're black." Regina snarked at her on her way by and smirked when Granny couldn't see her. Just as the old woman did her.

"Thank you, Regina." David smiled down at her and then stepped back, waving his arm to indicate the room. "What do you think?"

Regina blinked at him.

"Is that a joke?"

"No, this is serious." David frowned at her. "Tell me what you think happened here."

Regina gave the room a cursory glance, more for his benefit than hers, and looked up at him again.

"My guess is that you and the werewolf came in here, trashed a perfectly good walk-in freezer and staged a clumsy crime scene as some sort of bizarre interview process for me." Regina gratefully accepted the steaming cup of tar thick coffee Granny handed her when she came back into the kitchen. "Speaking of, where is our resident lycanthrope?"

"She's gone." Granny's tone was flat. Her voice attempting to give away nothing.

"Why do you think we set this up?" David asked instead.

"Really?" Regina scoffed. "David, if there's one thing I know; it's crime. This is like CSI: Kindergarten. The damage to the freezer is minimal, not what you would get from a rampaging werewolf that has been known to bite the legs of horses with a snip of her teeth. The door isn't bent or buckled like it would be if she had shouldered it open and it broke the _wrong way_. The hinges have been sheared so it just popped clean out. I suppose so you could easier fix it. Not to mention you wouldn't use a freezer as a prison cell for any extended period of time because the occupant would suffocate." Regina shrugged and missed the guilty look that washed over Granny's face. "As I said, amateur hour."

"This has been staged?" David pointed to the door and Regina narrowed her eyes.

"Ye-es." She looked between David and Granny. "By neither of you I take it."

"We thought it was real. We thought Ruby…"

"You thought she'd gone savage?" Regina frowned. "Why?"

"She didn't have her cloak. She hasn't changed in nearly thirty years. There was a chance she wouldn't be in control and we thought…"

"You thought she'd try and eat the town?" Regina drawled and looked down at the door. She studied the room more carefully.

The door on the floor, the claw marks she could see inside the freezer, the smear of red on the floor that had come from nothing more lively than a defrosting steak…the door in the wall…

"Alright, I might not be an expert in werewolves, but I got close enough to Ruby on the battlefield to notice that she doesn't have _thumbs_. If she was in full on wolf mode when she came out, why isn't there a Ruby shaped hole in one of the doors or windows?"

David and Granny glanced about the kitchen and frowned.

"The diner door was locked when I came in." Granny murmured.

"The fire escape?"

"It was open. It's one of those push bar things, she could have hit it as the wolf and opened the door that way."

"She could have." Regina tapped at the six inch thick steel door lying on the floor with her toe again. "She didn't. Someone came in through the front door. Filed the hinges and hid…where would they hide?" Regina spun in a slow circle.

"There's nowhere to hide." David shrugged. "Not from a wolf."

"Not from a wolf intent on eating you, no." Regina stalked out of the kitchen, but not back into the diner, she headed for the fire exit instead. "A wolf intent on getting back to the woods it loves, however…well, you'd just need to stay out of sight and out of mind. Hold this."

Regina shoved her coffee cup into David's hands and then hefted at the fire exit. She shoved down on the push bar and it sprang open. She clipped outside in her heels and looked into the alleyway behind the diner. The door opened out the way. She stood, swinging it back and forth a little as she thought.

"Here." David caught on at the same time as she did. "He'd have held the door open and stood behind it. Ruby wouldn't have seen, she'd have just barrelled straight past him and you can see the woods from here." He pointed down the alleyway towards the green blanket of pines that rose up around Storybrooke. Just a couple of streets away "How did I not see that?"

"You didn't see it because you didn't want to." Regina rescued her coffee cup from him and stepped back inside. "You don't want to believe that anyone in your town would harm one of your friends. I'm the woman that made a career out of hurting your friends. You needed a different viewpoint."

"I'm not naïve and I'm not stupid."

"I have not once said that." Regina was silent a beat. "Today."

David glared at her though it wasn't completely seriously.

"I simply meant that I'm a criminal, I think about things in a certain way. A way you are not familiar with."

"Like how to get away with murder."

"You know I have." Regina shrugged a shoulder and looked him dead in the eye. "You're sure you've thought this through? This is kind of like giving a badge to Hannibal Lecter. You're going to be faced with a heap of grief from a never ending parade of stupid and that's just when your wife and daughter return. You've got the mob to deal with between now and then."

"With you between me and them." David grinned.

"David…"

"I'm sure, Regina. You're getting a fresh start. If Rumplestiltskin can have Belle and George walks the streets free then –by god- you're going to get a chance too." David had that determined look on his face. The one of a good man on a righteous mission and Regina realised she'd have a better time of getting the sun to rise in the West than she would getting him to turn back.

"This is a hell of a gamble, proclaiming me safe for the general public. Do you really trust me? I don't trust me."

"Yeah, but you've got things to lose now." David shrugged a shoulder.

"David, I have never been crazier than when I thought I was losing someone."

"So long as the crazy is pointed at other people." David grinned.

"David, I'm being serious."

"So am I." He sobered. "You deserve a second chance and I trust you. It's crazy and stupid and beyond all comprehension, but I trust you to do what's right for this town."

"Why?" Regina still couldn't wrap her head around it.

"Because you have people now. Me, Henry, Ruby, Rachel, Granny, Daniel, we're all here to look out for you. We'll keep you right."

"That's," staggeringly stupid, naïve, idiotic, moronic, a break from reality, asking for trouble, "one of the nicest things anyone's ever said to me."

David grinned and Regina smiled back in a bemused way. Sometimes she thought she had them all figured out. The 'good' people. She thought them stupid and predictable and a constant pain in her ass. Not to mention insipid and annoying, but then they went and got her to play along with them –again- and here she was looking at the silver star he was holding out to her.

"Regina Mills, I dub thee first deputy to the Sheriff of Storybrooke, Maine." David moved when she wouldn't and pinned the star to the lapel of her jacket. "I'll get you to swear the oath later."

"David," Regina waited until he looked her in the eye, "I swear, to _you_, that I will try my best not to let you down."

David tilted his head and rocked back on his heels. He smiled.

"I believe you."

"Which makes one or both of us stupid." Regina smirked in a lopsided way.

"Or hopeful."

"I've not had enough coffee for this." Regina swirled the remnants of her drink in its cup. "Another for the road and then we're going to go and find Ruby. I can't very well leave my adopted sister in the woods by herself." Regina heaved a sigh and made a beeline back towards Granny and the coffee machine.

David turned to follow after and then frowned.

"Your adopted what-now?!"

**The Woods**

"I think you need to invest in some more appropriate footwear." David mused aloud when he had to wait for Regina to catch up yet again.

"I think I'll tell your wife, when you _find_ her, that you can't stop staring at my legs."

David frowned. Touché.

"Oh, fine!"

Regina heaved a sigh and purple smoke rolled over her body. It warped her clothes until she wore a brown shirt, tan pants and knee high brown leather boots. A brown leather duster brushed her calves, her silver star pinned to the lapel. She wore a heavy leather belt low on her hips. Several pairs of handcuffs on one hip, jangling from it whilst she walked, and a heavy nightstick secured at the other.

David's brows rose at the change. Well, he'd said he wanted her to wear a uniform but…

"Ye look like Hitler Youth as done by Gucci." Granny announced from her vantage point ahead of them.

"Say what you like about them, the Nazis had style." Regina held out her hands and settled them on David's shoulders when he gripped her waist and helped her down off a fallen log.

It wasn't until he released her and turned away from her to hide his smirk that she realised she never would have done that even last week. She blinked at herself and then shook it off. She _was_ changing, she could agonise over it later.

"I don't think it strikes the proper tone." David finally mustered his face under control.

"I think it strikes exactly the right tone." Regina disagreed, as was her want. "Nobody would believe that I was there to protect and serve them. Serve them up on a platter, maybe, but not protect them."

"Maybe you should try changing that?"

"Listen, David, you have your whole nobility thing going and that works for you. Terrifying people into obeying my every whim is my thing. You knew that when you suggested this hare-brained scheme of yours. If you want to change your mind, I can leave right now."

"You're not getting out of this that easily." David chuckled at her.

"Curses, foiled again." Regina stopped to pluck a tuft of dark brown fur from a branch and examine it. She stowed it in her pocket.

"Why do you do that?"

"Hmm?"

"Pocket things. You do it all the time. You pick up random stuff and keep it." David slowed so she could walk alongside him.

"You going to arrest me for thievery, Charming?" Regina smirked.

"No, it's nothing anyone would miss. They never appear to have much value, you just…collect stuff."

"Part of being a witch is having a collection of apparently useless things about your person which can be turned into something useful later on." Regina shrugged. "Old habits I suppose."

"Is that how you see yourself? As a witch, I mean?"

"No. Not anymore. I'm a great deal more powerful than that. I'm not even just a sorceress anymore. I'm…something else now."

"Is that bad?"

"That depends. It allowed me to tear out pieces of my own soul with nothing more than a pen and paper."

"Your soul?!" David gripped her shoulder and spun her to face him. "Did you just say you ripped out bits of your own _soul_?"

"Yes." Regina frowned. "Daniel reacted like this as well."

"He saw?"

"He was there."

"And he didn't stop you?"

"You should know by now that I'm not easily stopped." Regina smirked. "Both of you are overreacting. The soul is not this perishable resource that everyone seems to think it is. It grows and changes as you do. You lose and gain pieces of it all the time. Mine was sick, being as powerful as I now am, I could finally see it and do something about it."

"So you just cut pieces out of it? Just like that?"

"Well, no, it hurt like the proverbial but they were rotten. It's no wonder I went as mad as I did."

"So…that's why? All the things you did, you did it because your soul was sick?"

Regina looked at him for a long moment, her hands deep in her pockets and an unreadable expression on her face.

"Just yesterday I'd have said yes." Her voice was quiet, softer than it usually was. "I'd have lied to you and jumped on the excuse but, the truth is; no. I have no excuse for doing the things I did. My soul was broken, yes, and it was done to me, in part, but it just paved the way. I might have recovered from the wound, recovered from what was done to me, had I been a good person but I'm not. Being evil, committing atrocities, infected the wound, let it fester."

"And now…it's clean? You fixed the damage?"

"No, I actually made it worse, but," Regina hurried to explain when he looked like he might freak out, "I know it's there now and I know it's healing. Before, I didn't, all I could feel was the hole and –when fantasising about murdering Snow made it feel less like I was hollow inside- I kept doing it. Until fantasies weren't enough and…well, you know the rest."

"No." David shook his head after a moment. "I don't think anybody does."

"Well…I'm all shared out for the day so you'll have to live with my aura of mystique for a while longer."

"Have you told _any_ of this to Daniel?"

"No." Regina looked confused as to why she would.

David opened his mouth and then clipped it shut, he pinched the bridge of his nose and heaved a sigh.

"The other day, when you were being weird with him, weirder than usual, it was because he saw you do the soul slicing thing, wasn't it?"

"He didn't react well." Regina's voice was flat. "As I knew he would."

"Did you _explain_ what you had done and that you hadn't just tossed away a part of your own being, or did you just open with 'yeah, so I killed a bit of my soul' and leave it at that?"

"Maybe…the latter." Regina looked away from him.

"No wonder he freaked out!" David threw his arm wide. "For all he knew, the woman he loved had gone from being terminal that morning to willingly tearing herself apart in the afternoon. How would you feel if Henry had done something like that?"

David regretted his words when Regina visibly paled at the thought.

"David, I wouldn't even wish that kind of pain on Snow." Regina shook off the thought of Henry doing that kind of thing to himself. "It was necessary though. I had to put failsafes in place."

"Failsafes for what?" David frowned, that couldn't be good.

"The kind of power I have? If left unchecked it would affect things."

"Things like?"

"Nothing major." Regina shrugged. "The landscape, weather patterns, stuff like that."

David took a moment to quietly scream within the confines of his own mind at the thought of the magical equivalent of Mount Saint Helens walking through Storybrooke.

"The point is, it would be a conscious effort on my part to control all that. Can you imagine having to think about breathing all the time?"

"So tearing into your soul meant that you won't go nuclear?"

"Tearing into my soul meant the spells would stick and I won't go nuclear _unintentionally_."

David huffed out a long breath and shook his head.

"You know what? I'll take what I can get."

"A lot of people have been saying that. I've never tried to be difficult to like, it just happens naturally."

"You're not difficult to like." David sighed and started back on the path again, Regina following him. "You're actually very easy to like. You made a career out of trying to murder my wife and I, you're crazy, a mass murderer, lobotomised an entire world and threw my wife and daughter through a portal into another dimension and I _still_ like you."

"That last one wasn't intentional."

David laughed.

"Children," Granny called from ahead of them, "as delightful as your conversation is, could we please focus on finding my granddaughter?"

"I am focussed." Regina frowned. "She's about fifty yards straight ahead of us."

Granny frowned.

Regina plucked the piece of fur she had lifted earlier from her pocket and held it up. Small sparks of green magic plumed from it and wafted ahead of her, spiralling past Granny and continuing into the trees beyond.

Regina smirked.

"See? Useful."

David surprised her by laughing.

"Come on." David preceded her, hurrying in the direction Granny had disappeared, not wanting her to be alone when she got to Ruby.

Not that he expected her to be surrounded by dismembered citizens, but…just in case.

He and Regina arrived at the log where Ruby had sequestered herself just in time for her to come round from the deep sleep she had fallen into after some wolf time carousing and it took her about thirty seconds to start freaking out.

Regina stood back at the top of the rise and watched all of this with a benign kind of interest. It wasn't until Ruby began to get truly agitated that she started down the slope and made a show of bending at the waist to nosy under the log.

"What are you doing? Why is she here?" Ruby, a little slow on the uptake with her wolf hangover, looked blearily between David and Granny.

"Nope." Regina straightened and propped herself against the log. "No severed limbs, no blood spatter, nor shed fur indicative of a scuffle. I declare you kill free."

"What? How would you know?!" Ruby squared up to Regina who worked not to yawn.

"My murder sense isn't tingling." Regina's voice was firm.

"Whoop-de-doo!" Ruby threw her arm wide. "We can all go home then!"

"Excellent idea. You must be starved." Regina managed something like a friendly smile.

Ruby opened her mouth with the intent of tearing Regina a new one for her tone when her stomach yowled at the prospect of food. She clapped her hands over it as if to silence it and then looked guiltily at her friends.

"I am pretty hungry."

"So you _haven't_ ruined your breakfast by eating the villagers." Regina tilted her head, smirking.

"That doesn't mean I haven't hurt anyone."

"Ruby, you know as well as I that werewolves –before they can control the change- act just like normal wolves. They hunt when they are hungry, they eat what they hunt. I doubt very much you hared after someone for a tickle fight last night. If you're hungry, it's because you haven't eaten and have undergone two metamorphoses in the space of twelve hours. Enough to make anyone famished." Regina looked between her companions. "Now that I have saved the day and the furry one's sanity, may we go back to civilisation?"

David nodded, opening his mouth to add something and cut himself off when his cell phone bleated shrilly in his pocket. Rummaging, David turned away, hauled it out and clapped it to his ear.

Granny and Ruby spoke amongst themselves, the elder checking over her granddaughter for any injuries the night's festivities might have wrought, but Regina watched Charming.

His tone was terse, he didn't want to be dealing with this and Regina had the sinking feeling that she was about to be on the receiving end of some delegation.

"What is it?" Ruby demanded as soon as Charming signed off the call. "Was it me? Was someone hurt?"

"Someone left their car outside the cannery, that's all." David offered her a smile and rubbed at Ruby's arms to comfort her. "I need to check it out on my way back into town. Relax."

"Easy for you to say." Ruby hugged herself.

"You didn't hurt anyone. Don't worry about it. The truck is this way." David ushered Ruby and Granny back the way they'd come and almost made it to following them before Regina's fingers hooked in his belt and yanked him back to stand altogether too close to her.

Regina lifted a hand, finger pointed, and sketched a quick circle over their heads. David's ears popped when something he couldn't see engulfed them both.

"There, now we can talk."

"Please, Regina, I'm a married man." David smirked but it slipped away at Regina's expression.

"I'll ignore the gossip. We're going to find a dead body at the cannery."

David was silent a long moment and then he mustered himself to respond.

"Have we been naughty?" He asked her carefully.

"Not _my _handiwork." Regina hissed an irritated breath. "You'd never find the body if it was me, but look at the entire situation. Ruby's wolftime, her cloak nowhere to be found, someone broke her out of the walk-in and now an abandoned car at the cannery? People don't abandon their cars in Storybrooke. This reeks of the same amateur frame-up that we saw at the diner and you know it."

"It could have a flat tyre." David tried to think of an excuse for the abandoned car but Regina did have a terrible habit of being right about the most horrible things. If her 'murder sense' was tingling, he would probably do well to trust it.

"And I could braid friendship bracelets for Snow and I." Regina's voice was flat. "Send me to see about the car, if I find something bloody, then I'll call you and _please_ learn something of a poker face between now and then."

"I dunno if I should leave you on your own so soon."

"Really?" Regina tilted her head. "_Really?"_

"If there's someone out there crazy enough to get into a room with a werewolf of questionable sanity, then they're probably more than willing to take a run at you. I don't want you on your own. You're just arrogant enough to get yourself killed by someone you underestimate."

Regina rolled her eyes.

"I am more than capable of looking after myself."

"That's exactly what I mean!"

"And who am I supposed to take? Henry? No one's going to want to ride shotgun with the Evil Queen."

David huffed a breath out through his nose when her status as town pariah came back to bite him. Ideally, he would send Ruby but, if Regina was right, the last place they needed Ruby was in front of her supposed victim's remains.

"Daniel."

"_What?!"_

"Take Daniel. You told me yourself, he's Superman, and I can one hundred per cent trust him to watch your back."

"I am _not_…"

"You will, or you won't be going anywhere by yourself. I will follow you all day and I will bring Ruby with me."

Regina's jaw clenched when she realised he would do exactly that. She fumed for a silent moment, trying to think her way out of it.

"I'll let you drive the squad car." He rummaged in his pocket and retrieved the keys from the station. He jangled them enticingly.

He saw the thrill that went through her at the promise but she admirably muscled it down in an attempt to remain in a huff with him. She glared at him for long moments and then snatched at the keys. David was just as quick and his fingers closed over hers and the keys both.

"You'll take Daniel with you."

Regina rolled her eyes and his hand tightened on hers.

"Promise me." David's voice was steel.

"I promise I will take Daniel with me to the cannery to see the car." Regina huffed a sigh and yanked the keys from his hand. "Is that all…_boss_?"

"For now." David straightened and studied her, worried for her. Annoyed at himself for being so. He really needed to get that chivalry gland looked at. "Check in every hour."

"That seems like an inefficient use of my time."

"_On_ the hour."

"Fine, every hour on the hour and as events arise. Happy?"

"Middling."

"Close enough." Regina jerked her elbow out and popped the spell around them like a bubble.

"Straight to Daniel." David levelled a warning finger at her. "I'll be calling him soon to check."

"I knew I shouldn't have gotten him that phone." Regina growled and nodded.

She was irritated on the surface but it really was quite sweet the way he worried for her. It was a novel concept and it made her feel…kind of warm and fuzzy. Which disturbed her, so she shoved it down to be dissected later.

"Right, talk to you in an hour."

"On the hour." Regina waved to him, the keys jangling in her hand and she promptly disappeared in a puff of purple smoke.

Regina reappeared in an unfamiliar place. The room was dark, the curtains shut against the grey light outside.

"Daniel?" Regina's hands stretched out and she took a hesitant step forward, gasping when she barked her shin against the wooden frame of the bed. "Sonova…!"

Regina bent, rubbing at her leg and froze when something moved.

Bulky, growling, the thing shifted on the mattress making it creak. It rolled onto its back, turned its head to see her and opened its eyes.

Glowing green eyes.

**AN2;**

**Nyah-HAH!**

**Cliffhanger!**

**I TOLD you things were heating up!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18 – Family Ties**

"_Hyde!"_ The name hissed from Regina in time with the roar of the fire she conjured into her palm.

Those green eyes flew wide in alarm and he flung himself from the bed at the same time as Regina loosed the fire in her hand.

"Regina!"

"Bastard!" Regina summoned more fire, twin soccer ball sized spheres, and lobbed one after the other at Hyde in vicious overhand throws.

"Regina, wait!" Hyde threw up his hands, dancing out of the way of the fire she hurled at him and it wasn't until he crashed into the window and tore the curtains down from it –pole and all- that Regina stalled, lightning coiling around her hands and arms.

"Daniel?"

"Yes! Me!" Daniel slowly rose to his feet, his hands stretched out towards her as if to ward her off. "Please stop trying to fry me."

"Your eyes were green!" Regina accused him and Daniel just frowned at her.

"They've always been blue."

"Not just now. I saw them in the dark. They were green!"

"Regina, the _alarm clock_ is green!" Daniel pointed to the bedside table and Regina risked a glance over to see that it was true.

A cheap little alarm clock with a green numbered light-up display sat on the bedside cabinet.

"You must have seen the reflection in my eyes…and –like any normal person- decided to try and cook me in my own fat." Daniel straightened to his full height and tunnelled his fingers through his hair. He looked harassed and rumpled but otherwise completely normal.

Relief poured over Regina like someone had upended a jug of it over her head.

"Oh my god, Daniel!" Regina bounded up onto the bed, running across it and hurling herself towards him. "It is you! I thought…never mind what I thought. Are you alright? I didn't hurt you?" Her eyes were all over him, checking his face, neck, arms and chest for burns. A pang of hurt flashing through her when he lunged back from her so she couldn't touch him.

"Daniel, I didn't mean to, I'm sorry. I thought you were someone else." Regina reached for him again and her eyes stung when he pressed himself back against the wall rather than let her near him. "I'm not going to hurt you. Please…"

She couldn't stand it. She hadn't realised how much she had believed in him, that he wouldn't run from her, until he did and…

"Regina, I'll gladly let you touch whichever part of me you want but you're _on fire_."

"What?"

"Your arms."

Regina looked down at her arms and hands and made a small sound of surprise when she realised she was still wreathed in white blue flames and sparks of electricity. She'd never done that before. Never been so mad or scared as to compress flames into this purer –hotter- form of electric fire.

"Sorry." She snuffed the flames with a will and shook her hands to make sure they were all out. "Sorry." She said again.

"It's alright." Daniel reached for her immediately and tugged her towards him, engulfing her in his arms. "I'm fine. You didn't even scorch me."

"You're a lot faster than I gave you credit for." Regina's voice was muffled against the wall of muscle that was his chest.

She could hear the thunderous booms of his heart in his chest. The pace had quickened, he had just narrowly avoided being roasted by a witch after all, but it seemed fine. He seemed fine.

She nuzzled closer, allowing herself to this once, and rested her forehead against the cool metal of his silver scar. The hair on his chest was curling and rough, the metal cool and smooth and his skin warm and velvety. She could only imagine the havoc he would wreak on her just in the contrast of their skins when he finally took her.

Regina's eyes flashed open. When had it turned from 'if' to 'when'?

"Who's Hyde?"

Regina stiffened in his arms and slowly drew away from him. She looked him in the eye, deep, dark, blue eyes, and swallowed convulsively.

"He's a monster." She watched him carefully for any sign of recognition. For a hint of the evil hiding behind his face.

Nothing.

Not even a flicker.

Regina was getting the very real sense that she was looking in the entirely wrong place for Hyde. She'd seen the ultrasound, that heart had been a normal size, was it really just paranoia?

Hyde's heart was missing from her collection, stolen by Whale, but there was no guarantee that he'd used it at all…she needed to have a talk with the good doctor.

Soon.

She'd been avoiding it because the last time they'd met she'd very nearly killed him and –well- her feelings on the subject hadn't much changed. She'd need a minder but she couldn't think of anyone strong enough to stop her should her temper get the better of her…it looked like she'd be asking another favour of David.

Ugh.

"And you thought he'd be in my room? In my bed?"

"I…I didn't think. The last time I saw glowing green eyes like that I got this scar." Regina lifted her hand and tapped at her top lip. "Not even Snow managed to mark me with any permanence in all our battles. Hyde alone left me scarred."

"Well, he's not here now and he's never going to hurt you again." Daniel smoothed her hair back behind her ear. "Not while I'm around."

Regina chuckled, but it was more at the irony than anything else.

She was going to have to know. She was going to have to figure out a litmus test to find out if Hyde really was in there because –so long as his threat existed- she and Daniel were stuck in this horrible limbo where she couldn't push him away and she couldn't let him in.

Her hand rested on his chest without her consciously moving it and she rubbed at his scar absently, comforted by the strong feel of his heart –because it was _his_ heart now- thumping steadily there. The sound and sensation went a long way to soothing her frazzled nerves.

"Now, not that I'm not happy to see you, but why are you breaking into my rooms?" Daniel smirked. "I mean, you could at least have appeared in my bed and given me a fighting chance."

"I'm here on business." Regina shoved at his chest, trying not to smile.

"A man can hope." Daniel sighed and turned away from her, rummaging for clothes. He found a pair of jeans and rustled up a white tee shirt. He noticed that Regina didn't once look away. Enjoying the view apparently.

He was struck again by how different she was to the blushing girl he had known. Back in the Enchanted forest he thought she had seen him without his shirt on. Once. She had been tongue tied and flushing furiously afterwards and he had been flattered but now…now he wouldn't have to hold back with her.

Daniel had often felt oafish in her presence. Conscious that –even back then- he had been so much stronger than her and it would be so easy to hurt her. She had been so gentle, hurt so often just by her parents (for Henry Senior was as implicit in Cora's abuse as the witch herself as far as Daniel was concerned –he could have done anything other than stand by and let it happen, but that was exactly what he had done). Daniel hadn't wanted to be just another source of bruising to her.

Now, well, now she'd be able to take the pace.

Restrain him magically if she had to. He was, in fact, intrigued by the prospect.

"Daniel, keep looking at me like that and we're never going to get anywhere."

"Is that all it will take?" Daniel tilted his head and smirked and Regina sucked in a deep breath. She pressed her lips together and then shook herself.

"Behave yourself. I need your help."

Daniel straightened at that. Another test?

"Doing what?"

"Catching a killer."

"Who's dead?" Daniel stilled in the act of pulling on his boots.

"I don't know yet but my murder sense is tingling." Regina grinned at him, looking far too happy with this turn of events. "With any luck, we'll catch the bastard before David does and I'll get to try some of that police brutality I've heard so much about."

"That doesn't sound very…"

"Oh, come on!" Regina fished a set of jangling keys out of her pocket. "I haven't killed anyone in _months._ Surely a little good old fashioned pummelling is allowed."

Daniel heaved a sigh through his nose and knew he was being nettled. Again. His mouth twisted and he arched a brow at her.

She watched him for a long moment, the malicious glee slowly draining from her face. She nodded once.

Test passed.

"This is how it's going to be. It's not going to be easy." She wasn't talking about catching killers anymore. "There are walls, my love, _lots_ of walls."

"Walls I will hurdle, climb, dig under and break through." Daniel approached her slowly and looked her dead in the eye. "Lead on, I'll follow you anywhere."

"Truly?"

"Of course." Daniel smirked. "The view is spectacular."

Regina slowly grinned, reaching out to settle her hand over his heart again.

"You know…I'm beginning to believe you."

Daniel grinned, showing off white teeth and Regina didn't even flinch when she saw the green numbers of the alarm clock lighting his eyes again.

The alarm clock. Right.

_**The Cannery**_

"You drive like you ride." Daniel hurled himself out of the car and onto the worn boards of the dock where the cannery stood. They creaked under his boots but at least they didn't move far too fast and swing wildly around corners like certain machines that certain deputised women drove.

"I particularly like the shotgun rack." Regina slammed the driver door behind her and settled her hands on her hips, admiring the squad car. "Not that I'd need one, but there's something to be said for pump action."

Daniel just frowned at her. Not understanding the reference but knowing that her tone probably wasn't appropriate for the search of a dead body.

A body that Regina had no reason to suspect was actually there other than her 'murder sense' was tingling. Whatever the seven hells that meant. She had explained everything to him on the way. Being deputised, Charming dragging her into this whole mess, her worry for Ruby (she hadn't used those words, but she was concerned for the werewolf) and her barely restrained glee at getting to use the 'squad car'.

Daniel didn't really see the attraction, it looked like a normal car to him, just with extra lights, but Regina so evidently enjoyed herself in it that he was almost willing to put up with the reckless way she commanded it.

"Well, as soon as you can tear yourself away…" Daniel prodded. If she was going to look at anything with such appreciation, he'd much rather it was him than a hunk of lifeless metal.

"Right!" Regina skirted the car, her long coat snapping around her.

Daniel would admit that the notion of women wearing breeches wasn't entirely alien to him but Regina did fill hers out nicely. She was always dressed to impress. Who, he wasn't certain, but he appreciated the view anyway.

"David said there was a car abandoned at the cannery. Presumably a concerned citizen called it in. We are supposed to find said car and ascertain the whereabouts of its owner."

"Who you think is dead in a ditch somewhere?"

"Hopefully." Regina nodded and the looked quickly at him when she realised how that had sounded. "I mean, if the body was disposed of into the ocean, we've little to no hope of finding it and –in turn- finding who killed them."

"Why are you so certain the abandoned car means a dead body?" Daniel was only now beginning to get the sense of how dark Regina's mind could be. If this kind of thought came naturally to her…well, Cora had sunk her claws in deeper than he'd ever thought possible.

"The mess at Granny's diner. It was a TERRIBLE frame job, mainly because you _can't_ see a good one. Whoever is doing this is leaving breadcrumbs the size of Buicks for us to find. Subtle is not in their repertoire."

"Which would mean we will catch them quickly."

"I knew you'd be a good sidekick." Regina beamed at him and he smirked. Not entirely sure of the word but her tone had meant well. "The only problem arises with the culprit being so far ahead of us. He started last night, David and I just hiked into the forest to find Ruby. Without my magic…well, it wouldn't be easy."

"I'm sure the good Sheriff is grateful that you're here to save the day."

"As well he should be." Regina pointed further along the boardwalk. "There it is."

Reina's pace quickened and Daniel easily kept up with her. His legs were a lot longer after all, he looked down at her with concern when she slowed. The excitement was gone and –in its place- concern.

"That's Billy's truck."

"You knew him?"

"He's a mechanic. He's kept my car running smoothly for over two decades, I…I _like_ Billy." Her voice lowered to a growl. "Find him."

Regina advanced on the abandoned truck and began to look around. Daniel followed her example, not really sure what to look for since he didn't have a murder sense to fall back on. He rounded the truck, dark eyes scanning and stilled when he looked up and saw a foot sticking out of a dumpster, one step closer was enough to see that the leg didn't go any higher than the calf.

"I think I found Billy." Daniel murmured.

"Me too." Regina spoke from the other side of the truck and Daniel twisted to look over at her. She looked…she looked _angry_.

Not the manic kind of anger that had taken her at Rachel's house, nor the waspish irritability that she pulled on like an armour, but distilled righteous fury. Billy was one of _hers_. Someone had killed him on her turf and on her watch and he could see the gears in her head rotating around to M for Murder.

"Hack job." She shook her head, her lip curled in disgust. "What kind of MORON would mistake axe wounds for wolf bites?!" Regina began to pace. "He's not even made an attempt to make it look like she ate him. Just tore him apart. Wolves don't DO that! PEOPLE do that! _I _do that!"

"Regina," Daniel cautiously approached her, "you need to think. You're not going to solve anything by getting blinded by anger."

Regina stormed back and forth, her hands twisted into claws at her sides. She seemed unaware of the magic snapping and crackling from her fingertips. She kept shaking her head, like trying to rattle water from her ears or jostle a siren song from her eardrums.

Daniel kept trying.

"If you're part of the law now, you're going to need evidence. You're wearing that uniform and that crest for a reason. You don't just represent yourself anymore." Daniel scrambled to get through to her. If he couldn't, the only other person might be Henry and Daniel didn't want him to be anywhere near this kind of thing. "Didn't you raise Henry to respect the law?"

Regina's eyes flickered to him and her hands began to unclench. She kept pacing but had settled into a simmering fume. She muscled her temper down, it took several moments, but she got in under control. She huffed out a slow breath and looked sideways at him.

"When did you get so smart?"

"Born this way." Daniel smirked and stepped closer to her. Not touching her, because that seemed disrespectful amongst the splatter of Billy's remains, but offering to shield her from the wind with his body.

"People aren't born. They're made." Regina disagreed but there was no heat to it. She turned and looked at the desolate cannery. She shivered violently suddenly.

"You alright?"

"Yes, fine, I just…I felt like I shouldn't be here…like I shouldn't come back." Regina stared hard at the cannery and pressed her lips together. Her eyes gleamed with a spark of magic and Daniel waited. After a moment, she shook her head. "Not human, not deliberate but…huh." Regina chuckled.

"What?"

"The magic, Storybrooke's magic, is warning me off. It doesn't want me to go into the cannery." She tilted her head. "I must have endeared myself to it more than I had thought."

"You want to go in. Don't you?" Daniel drawled.

"Would I be a good investigator if I didn't?"

"You might be a healthier one."

"Where's your sense of adventure?"

"In bed. We can go back and get it if you want." Daniel brightened at his suggestion and she shook her head, but she was smiling.

"Hardly the kind of talk for a murder scene, dear." Regina started towards the cannery, pulling her cell phone from her pocket and punching in a number from memory. "Come on, let's be nosy."

She clapped the phone to her ear and listened to the trilling on the other end.

"Sheriff." David answered on the other end.

"David. I was right. Get to the cannery. It was Billy, Gus, the mechanic mouse."

Regina jerked the phone away from her ear suddenly when there was a high pitched and panicked sound from the other end. She frowned and tried to decipher what was going on.

"David? David, what's going on?" Regina stopped on her path towards the cannery and listened more intently. "David?!"

"Shit!" There was more scuffling, as of someone picking up a phone that he had dropped. "Regina, Ruby heard, she's coming to you."

"David!" Regina cursed. "You had ONE job!"

"Wolf ears!" David defended himself and huffed out an irritated breath. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

"And I'll be waiting, fearless leader." Regina sighed and ended the call with a vicious stab of her finger against the screen. "Idiot."

"Ruby's on her way?"

Regina turned to see Daniel standing watching the approach to the docks from the road. He was frowning.

"Ye-es…"

"I don't have a wolf's ears, but it would seem that being dead has improved them greatly." Daniel answered her silent question as to how he had heard. "She's going to be upset."

"She's going to be here quickly, too. Werewolves are _fast._"

"So am I." Daniel lunged and Regina was glad because she had barely registered Ruby's approach before she was there.

Daniel grunted under the impact of a werewolf travelling at speed and wrapped his arms around her. He was shunted backwards, his boots dragging over the boards of the dock, and he bore down, thudding Ruby into the dock again and holding her there.

"Let me by!" Ruby caterwauled, shrieking in her panic. "Let me see!"

"Ruby, you don't need to see." Daniel struggled against her and Regina was on the verge of summoning magic before he wrestled the wolf back. "He wouldn't want to be seen this way."

"How do you know?!" Ruby allowed herself to be pushed back, screaming at Daniel's face. "You didn't know him at all! I did! I did this to him!"

Tears began to stream down Ruby's face and her voice caught in a sob.

"I did this! Again! It was me!" Ruby was properly sobbing now, turning back and forth, not knowing which way to go. She kept doing it, twisting this way and that and –when Regina appeared in her path- she did exactly what Regina knew she would.

"You have to stop me!" Ruby gripped Regina by the lapels of her shirt and shook her. "Chain me up, lock me away somewhere, put me down. Please!"

"You'd have me do that?" Regina stood impassively whilst Ruby shook her. "As far as I've come, as hard as I've tried to be better, to do good, you'd have me kill my own sister?"

"What?" Ruby blinked and snatched her hands away. "Shut up."

"Listen to your wolf, Ruby." Regina continued blandly. "Granny did it. You can feel it."

"That's not…WHY?!" Ruby was beginning to swing back around to anger.

"Does it matter?"

"Hell yes it matters!" Ruby very nearly shrieked and Regina remained unmoved. She knew Ruby was innocent and a werewolf's temper was hardly a threat to her. "You just told me I'm related to you!"

"By magic."

"Not by choice!"

"Nobody chooses who their family is." Regina gently reached for Ruby, gathering her closer. "I am your sister. Your older sister."

"No, no, no…" Ruby shook her head, tears still falling but collapsing slowly into Regina's hold.

"Listen to the wolf, Ruby, you know it. I'm your big sister," Regina sank down with Ruby until they knelt on the dock, she gathered her close and stroked her hair, "and I'm not going to let anything happen to you…or you happen to anyone else."

Ruby broke down completely and did exactly what she needed to do. Which was cry. Regina rocked her back and forth and shushed her and Daniel stood off to the side, giving them some measure of privacy. It wasn't until David's truck pulled up that Ruby lifted her head, heeling her hand over her cheeks and dashing the tears away.

"You'll help me tell David?"

"Of course." Regina stood with Ruby, steadying her.

The younger woman looked like ten miles of bad road. Some people could cry, sob their hearts out, and look alright afterward. Regina was one of them –years of practice- but Ruby wasn't. Her eyes were puffy and bloodshot, blotches of red scored high over her pale cheeks, she looked like a wreck.

Regina decided not to tell her any of that.

"What's wrong?" David slammed his truck door closed and approached them, his pace quickening when he saw how bad Ruby looked.

"I'm taking Ruby into custody." Regina clanked a pair of cuffs around Ruby's wrists and Ruby meekly let her do it.

"What?!" David's eyes went wide and he looked over at Daniel for help. Daniel looked just as mystified as he did. David rounded on Regina. "She didn't do this!"

"That's likely." Regina nodded and marched Ruby over to the squad car, ducking her inside. "I'm not taking the chance though. I'm going to put her somewhere where we can be sure she won't escape and she can't hurt anybody."

Regina shut the door and tapped her fingers on the roof of the car. A shimmer of magic rolled around the body of the thing.

"Continue to look outraged and yell a little." Regina told David.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" David growled at her.

"Very convincing, Charming." Regina smirked.

"This isn't a game, Regina! I didn't deputise you so you could throw innocent people in the cells!"

"Look at her, David." Regina frowned at him. "She is in NO shape to defend herself. Not only that but she doesn't believe she's innocent. I can't help her if she doesn't even believe in herself. Trying to convince her of it now is a waste of time better spent elsewhere."

"So…you don't think she did it?"

"Of course not!" Regina snorted and looked skyward. "The evidence suggest a very man shaped killer and I would very much like his head on a plate. I can't do that when I have to worry about his intended target as well."

"You think this guy is after Ruby? Why?" David was beginning to calm down and to realise that having an experienced murderer on his side had its advantages. A quick glance at torn body parts and they looked no different to the rendings of a wolf to him.

Regina obviously had a more discerning eye.

"Yes and I don't know why yet but she was the target at the diner and she's been framed for this." Regina looked none too pleased about that.

"Everyone likes Ruby." David protested.

"As far as you know." Regina sighed. "David, you're not exactly the kind of person someone shares their grudge with. You're too…nice."

"So what are we going to do?" David folded his arms over his chest, challenging her.

Regina blinked, thrown by the 'we' again. It was going to take a long time to get used to the 'we'.

"Well I'm going to put Ruby somewhere that no one will look for her and then I'm going to go out and get the killer. What do you want to do?" Regina stood hesitantly, watching him. "You could…help me? I mean, if that's what you want me to do. Boss."

David laughed at her. She looked so uncertain. Caught so wrong footed at the prospect of taking orders from anyone. She was trying though. Genuinely trying. Maybe even yesterday she'd have just gone off on her own and whoever she believed responsible for hassling Ruby would have been quietly disappeared.

David was still firm in the opinion that he was going to have to talk her down from mounting the offending party's head on a pike –she couldn't just go cold turkey- but she was at least going to give him the chance to do it.

He smiled.

"You're adorable."

"You take that back!" Regina scowled at him.

"No. You are." He nodded. "I can secure and process the scene and then inform Granny as to what's going on. She's not going to like it."

"You might need to take steps." Regina nodded. "Granny going maternal could very well be used against Ruby as well."

"Where are you going to take her?" David nodded to Ruby sitting desolately inside the car.

"I'm not sure yet. I don't want to leave her on her own but I can't stay with her either." Regina looked in on Ruby too and then focussed on a reflection in the window. She straightened. "Daniel?"

"Yes." Daniel had been watching the entire conversation with the interest of someone who understood the bare minimum of what was going on.

"How much does Eleanor hate me?"

"About middling." Daniel shrugged a shoulder. "She tolerates you because of Merida and Rachel and out of respect for me since you're my wife."

"Is there something you kids want to tell me?" David looked between them.

"We're not married." Regina sighed.

"Yet." Daniel smirked.

"Oh..kay…" David looked between them again and Regina forged on.

"I'm wondering, if I asked, would she hide Ruby?"

"Ruby will never agree to sit under a house with children in it if she thinks she's out of control."

"She will if I make her a magic collar that will stop her from transforming." Regina shrugged a shoulder.

"You can do that?" David looked wildly at her.

"No…but Ruby doesn't know that." Regina looked at Daniel. "Will you help my sister?" She seemed entirely unaware in the change of the way she referred to Ruby and neither man volunteered to point it out. Regina in full on Familial Mode was a beast better pointed at the enemy.

"I can talk to Eleanor about it. She knows a little something about being on the wrong end of a transformation. I think she'll help."

"So it's settled, I'll take Ruby to the Ugly Duckling, you'll talk to Granny –convince her this is staying in the family- and then meet you back here?"

"I'll call in the morgue. Send someone to help me…gather up Billy." David's smile finally slipped from his face when he was forced to acknowledge how horrible the situation was.

He started when Regina's hesitant fingers touched his hand. He looked down at her to see an unsure smile on her face.

"I'll be back soon," she smirked, "boss."

"Thanks, Regina, you've really helped."

"Don't embarrass me." She waved him away but she was smiling in her eyes. "Don't break anything between now and my return."

"I'll try." David was already dialling on his cell and Regina tapped the roof of the squad car, dropping the muffling spell that had prevented Ruby from hearing their plans.

Daniel heaved in a fortifying breath before slinging himself into the car, he hated the damn thing.

_**The Ugly Duckling…**_

"How is she?" Regina asked as Daniel came up from the beer cellar beneath the bar.

"She's upset but the chains seem to comfort her." Daniel looked slightly puzzled by it all and Regina explained as best she could.

"Being a killer isn't fun, Daniel. It's a special kind of terror that comes from not wanting to do it and finding yourself doing it anyway." Regina shrugged and looked back to the spell she was working on when his gaze became too penetrating. "We've given her peace of mind, once she's calmed she'll believe that it was someone else as much as we do."

It had hurt Regina more than she'd like to admit to see Ruby brought so low. She hadn't expected the bond of family that Granny had shackled her with to spring so actively to life but there it was. She now openly referred to Ruby as her sister and it seemed entirely natural.

What was more, Ruby seemed comforted by it as well. She had become nigh on hysterical at the thought of being under a building filled with so many 'innocent' people in it. Kibble in waiting as far as the wolf was concerned. Regina had been the only one able to calm her down and convince her that she could be led into the beer cellar.

"Howzit gan?"

Regina's head snapped up when a familiar brogue announced suddenly far too close to her.

"Afternoon, Danny." Merida beamed up at Daniel. She turned to Regina next and her smile was a little wary. "Miss Mills."

"Good afternoon, Merida." Regina spoke cordially. She wasn't going to admit it to anyone, least of all Merida, but she was beginning to warm up to the girl.

"Whatchya doin'?"

Regina blinked languidly at such a gross insult to enunciation that was the princess' syntax but mustered an answer anyway.

"I'm putting a spell on this collar."

"Why?"

"To stop Ruby from transforming." Regina had decided that headology would play a great part in her spell and that everyone –aside from herself and Daniel- would believe the collar to do exactly what Ruby thought it would. The last thing she needed was a wolf's ears picking up from someone in the know that it was complete nonsense.

"Ye can do that?" Merida's eyes widened. "I didnae think anybody could dae that."

"Well, I have a few tricks up my sleeve." Regina was rapidly depleting her stores of patience and she still had David to deal with after this too.

"Is it hard?"

"Extremely." Regina wasn't entirely lying. Enchantment was simple. Enough will and power and you could imbue objects with simple commands and restrictions that could be passed onto anything –say a person- that said object came into contact with.

Simple enough.

It was actually a lot harder what Regina was trying to do. She was trying to imbue the collar with enough power so as to be obviously magical to a comparative civilian like Ruby but not so much that it might destabilise and –say- explode her head off.

So she was trying to get it to glow and sparkle a little bit but not let the heat build up and set fire to Ruby's hair.

"I'll be quiet then."

"That, I would pay money for." Regina murmured and decided to try the metal studs on the collar rather than the leather. Ruby only needed to wear it through the night after all.

"Why doesn't she jist put on her cloak?" Merida's vow of silence was forgotten in the face of curiosity.

"How do you know about the cloak?" Regina lifted her head to eye Merida.

"Um…Henry was dain' a bit of readin' so I…asked him to read it tae me." Merida began to fidget under Regina's steady and unwavering stare. She felt colour begin to creep up into her neck and into her cheeks and the queen continued to watch her, studying her.

"Interesting." Regina finally decided.

Which terrified Merida a little bit. The last thing she wanted was for Henry's mum to take a notice of her.

"Stop it." Daniel leaned down and murmured into Regina's ear and she ducked her head back to the collar to hide her smirk.

So she hadn't entirely forgiven Merida for being a brat. She was allowed to be a little terrorising. She was supposed to be the Evil Queen after all. Who were parents going to scare their children into behaving with if not with tales of her coming for them in the dark of night to drag them under their beds never to be seen again? She owed it at the community at large to continue to be just evil enough to be a credible threat.

"So," Merida's curiosity was not so easily dissuaded, "whit happened to the cloak?"

"I don't know." Regina admitted but the wheels in her head began to tumble, "Ruby said she couldn't find it. Not even in Gold's shop."

"Could ye no' find it? With yer spells?"

"I'd need a part of it to find it or…" Regina quieted herself when something occurred to her. "I'll be right back."

She spun away suddenly and clattered down the steps into the dimly lit basement. It had actually been made very comfortable for Ruby. Eleanor had become almost as protective of Ruby as Regina had. She'd had Daniel and Eugene drag a bed and blankets down from the rooms above for Ruby to sit on and stay warm. A small wood burning stove added a heat to the dry but cool room and a television had been brought down to keep her occupied.

It didn't do much to detract from the chains of solid rock that Regina had pulled from the stone walls of the basement like taffy. Each link was easily the size of her head, the loops of stone making them up about as thick as her forearm. An ogre would have trouble breaking free of them and Regina had deliberately left them heavy so as to convince Ruby of their security. She had padded the manacles around each wrist so that they didn't chafe but that was as far as Ruby had been willing to let her go so as not to impede the chains' function.

"Hey," Regina was surprised again at how soft her voice was when she approached Ruby and knelt on the bed beside her, "it's done."

Ruby lifted her head, her eyes sunken and sad and Regina's heart grew heavier at the sight.

"Don't give up," she found herself saying, "I still believe this wasn't you. All of this is just to make you feel better."

"Regina, the only way I'll know it wasn't me is if someone else turns up dead tonight, and I don't want that."

"Nobody does, dear." Regina carefully swept Ruby's hair back. "You didn't do this. Try and believe that. Someone let you out of the walk-in. So –at the very least- there's someone out there who's partially responsible."

"What if I ate them too?"

"Nonsense." Regina dismissed it and buckled the collar around Ruby's neck. "There was no evidence of that. I saw what you did to my Blackguard's back in the Forest. Clean, is not a word I would associate with what you did to your enemies."

Regina pulled her hands away and winced when Ruby yelped.

"Sorry," Regina said quickly, contrite, "your hair got caught on my button. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." The chains grated when Ruby hefted a hand to the sting on her scalp. She touched the collar next and heaved a relieved sigh. "Thank you for this."

"Precautions only." Regina held up a finger. "Keeping you in one piece and place until I can catch the real culprit."

"Okay." Ruby tried to rally for Regina but it was half hearted at best.

Regina stood and didn't know what else to say. She much preferred to do.

"Daniel will keep watch and food will be brought down soon."

"Okay." Ruby was back to staring at her toes and Regina felt the mad urge to start howling and clawing at things.

She beat back the sibling connection and tried to keep her head as clear of it as possible. Daniel was right. She wasn't a free agent anymore. She had a badge and a uniform now.

Regina spun on her heel and hurried back up to the bar. She kicked the trapdoor shut behind her and found Daniel waiting for her. Merida was across the bar, her mother looming over her and giving her a stern talking too. No doubt for her infraction of mixing with the evil riff raff.

"Any change?"

"Still pining for the hangman." Regina's voice was tight. "I need you to stay and look after her."

"What about you?" Daniel frowned.

"I'm going to meet David. I'll be in the car between times." Regina smiled to try and comfort him. People worrying for her was throwing her for a loop. "Daniel, you're the only one strong enough to stop her should she wolf out and become violent."

"I thought you thought she was innocent?"

"She is," Regina nodded, "but wolves are not known for their fondness of confinement. The chains are enchanted to shift when she does but her wolf is going to be _annoyed_ when it finds itself a prisoner."

"Sit on the trapdoor?"

"With Lord Fergus if at all possible." Regina smiled and it faltered a little when his hand was suddenly cupping her face.

"You'll be careful." It wasn't a question, but she nodded anyway. "Call if you need me."

"Sure." Regina's voice was a little breathier than it should have been.

"I mean it. I'll turn that chain into a leash and walk the rabid wolf there like a coursing dog myself if I have to."

"I believe you." Regina nodded.

"Alright."

"Alright." Regina drew away from him and scooped up her coat, shrugging it on. "I'll see you later then."

"One more thing." Daniel's fingers caught down the front of her shirt and yanked her bodily against him.

Regina yelped but the sound was cut off by Daniel's mouth crushing against her own and her protests fumbled into nothing. She melted into him just as quickly as he demanded it of her.

It was positively chaste compared to their other kisses, Daniel pulled away from her after only a few searing seconds, but it was more than enough to fry all the connections in Regina's brain and force her to do a full system's reboot.

"Anything else?" She managed after a stunned moment, not unaware of how hopeful her voice sounded.

"Yes, don't get hurt. I'm trusting you here. Don't get mad and stupid and get hurt."

"I reserve the right to get mad." Regina took a moment to wipe away the lipstick she had left on his mouth and resisted the urge to use her tongue for the job. "I shall endeavour not to be the one that gets hurt though."

"Good. Now get out of here before I lay you out on the bar like a free meal." Daniel let out a harsh breath to show he wasn't entirely immune to the heat boiling between them.

He was trying, he was desperately trying to give her the time she needed but he was still a flesh and blood man and he'd been waiting longer than anyone should have to already. He wanted to have noble intentions but he always seemed to just have intent when it came to her.

Still, it pleased him when he propelled her towards the door that she wasn't entirely steady on her feet.

It pleased him even more when she turned at the doorway of the bar to look back at him. He was looking forward to the opportunity to make her smile like that again.

**WELL! I'm glad i read through that again, i still had notes for the plot sitting here and that would have been a bit spoilery. It even had something about Hyde and that would never do :D**

**Okay, the author's note is here because i didn't think anyone would read it before skipping straight to the other half of the cliffhanger and -all i have to say about that is- MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!**

**Had y'all goin, didn't i?**

**Some people are bailing on this because it's taking so long to get going and i hear ya with that, it's been a pretty slow burn up until now, but the blood is about to start spilling and the monsters are coming out of hiding. This is a filler chapter a bit but the next one is definitely going to have a good old fashioned dog fight. Well, wolf fight, that's right not one werewolf but MULTIPLE wolves!**

**Excited yet? You know i'm good for it. **

**A lot of people have also been bitching about Regina spending a lot of time with David. All i have to say about that is 'deal with it'. People are moaning that it's boring -which i find a little offensive- but it's also called CHARACTERISATION. I need Regina to be in a certain place before she gives in to herself and pins Daniel to the nearest flat surface for a few days. She can't do that if she's a scatty psychopath (which she always will be to a certain extent because she's more fun that way :D).**

**Aye, so, since i'm following the basic arc of season 2 with this, we've got to deal with Wolf Time, the hat, George, the Red Room, Hyde, Snow and Emma, sleeping curses and dragons (plural again, i spoil you guys) and all of that will happen in the next...15 chapters or so.**

**So all i have left to say is; thanks for bearing with me, for hanging tough through all the angst, laughing at the funny bits and jumping up and down with fits of the screaming ab-dabs when i drop Hyde bombs on ya XD**

**As always, you've read, hopefully loved, now all that's left is to tell me what you thought. **

**Have a good day, guys. **


	19. Chapter 19

**Okies, since y'all are ready to dispatch the search parties, i figure i'd better post something. **

**I scaled this back a bit, so if it seems a little stilted, that's why. I didn't want this to overshadow the epic to come but this is it, this is the start of the action! I'm not entirely happy with it, but it's as good as it's going to get. **

**I apologise for missing the last update on Saturday but work and college have been a little crazy. Assessments and extra hours and all sorts. I did warn ya that updates may be sporadic for the foreseeable, i do have other stuff going on :D**

**Anyways, George came as a surprise to me and i'm not even sorry for the way i ended this chapter. Y'all are gonna have to suffer until Saturday B]**

**As for my previous A/N in chapter 18, i totally didn't expect the response i got from you guys(though i won't turn down ego stroking if it's offered). You all seemed to be under the impression that i was gonna flip the table and quit the story because of a couple of naysayers (one guest apologised and if you're still reading, that comment wasn't directed solely at you, there have been others with the same opinion). This would never be the case, i have written over a 100, 000 words for this, well over 32 chapters and bonus scenes besides that got cut for streamlining purposes. The hell if i'm letting that go to waste. If just one person enjoys this story, i'll post it for them :)**

**Syed; looking forward to your thoughts on what i've done in this chapter, always interesting to see your views on it. **

**Also, haven't proofread really so excuse my mistakes but read, love, review anyway because you're all fabulous :D**

**Chapter 19 – Hairy Situation**

"You're sure this is working?"

"For the tenth time; yes." Regina huffed a sigh and resisted the urge to slap her companion on the back of his skull in an effort to get him to shut the hell up.

"It's just…we've been down this alley before." David sounded mulish.

"Tell you what; _you_ work the incredibly complex spell and plug it into your central nervous system and _I'll_ walk around with my genitalia extension of a weapon out, asking stupid questions." Regina stopped and turned to frown at him unerringly despite not being able to see him.

At least, not in the conventional sense. Her eyes were closed to prevent sensory overload due to the tracking spell she had worked on the hair she had snagged from Ruby. The spell was simplicity itself, using the hair, she could focus on any other dead parts that Ruby had left lying around of herself. Namely other hairs. She'd logged a lot of hours in that cloak, chances were –barring dry cleaning- that the material still held a strand or three. It would have been better to enchant a gem with it but she hadn't had one on hand and time was kind of the essence right at the moment. So she'd had to settle for hitching the spell to the ones already lain into her bones. Just a little swatch of uncarved ivory on her skull. Behind her left ear.

The result being a faint buzzing as the little bones in her ear vibrated in resonance with proximity to traces of Ruby. Which was fine had it not also been tuned into her optic nerve for some reason. Something to do with eighty per cent of sensory input to the brain being visual she supposed. Two minutes of looking at the magical miasma that was Storybrooke had been a migraine that could fell an elephant in the making.

So her eyes were closed.

She supposed it was fortunate that she could tell where she was in Storybrooke just by the texture of the street beneath her feet.

"You're sure you don't want to…I dunno, hold my hand or something?" David asked. Again.

"I'd rather break my nose on a wall." Regina told him flatly.

"But…"

"David, have you seen me even look like I was going to walk into something?" Regina tilted her head this way and that, listening for that oh-so faint buzzing that she'd been trying to zero in on for the past hour or so. She was getting frustrated. They were running out of time.

The sun was setting. They had been wandering the town for the better part of the afternoon looking for the faintest traces of Ruby's hair. Ticking off the most obvious places fairly quickly. Now they were down to the last thing Regina could hear, she couldn't hear below this register, not without switching forms and she had no real desire to find out what might happen to her spells should she switch the shape of the bones upon which they were etched.

"No, actually. That's kind of freaky."

"You forget that I'm the only one that actually remembers every moment of wandering this town's streets. There are advantages to having a brain that never shuts down." Regina shrugged a shoulder. "Sometimes."

Regina listened a moment more.

"This way." She turned off into a smaller alleyway, walked through it and out onto Store Street. She cursed when she walked smack into the car parked there. "Oof!"

"Told you holding my hand would be better."

"Shut up." Regina rubbed at her shin. That was the second time that day she had walloped it. With a shake of her head, she snapped the spell and scoured it from the bone upon which it had been drawn. She winced when she opened her eyes and found herself facing into the setting sun.

"Who's car is this?" David was already examining the dark saloon, peering in through the windows.

"George's." Regina circled the car warily, stretching out her senses, checking for traps. "He was something of a feature in the town hall, being a lawyer and all. What reason has he to threaten Ruby?"

"He doesn't." David straightened and rubbed at his eyes. "He threatened me though. Told me he was going to make my life miserable."

"David!" Regina threw her hands up.

"What?!" David yelled back. "I'm not Ruby. I had no idea the two were connected."

"You and Ruby are connected, that should be enough. Did it honestly not occur to you that he would use your favourite people against you? He knows that would hurt you more than anything he could weigh upon you. Everybody knows that!"

"I'm not that paranoid!"

"You should be. What if he'd gone after Henry?!" Regina sucked in a sharp breath when that fully occurred to her. Her jaw clenched and she snarled the last. "I'll kill him."

"No." David levelled a warning finger at her. "We do this right."

"He has attacked you and yours, David. You don't let that slide."

"What would you have me do? Just kill him in cold blood?"

"He struck first!" Regina's voice was changing, becoming colder, crueller.

"Stop it! You're not her anymore!" David rounded the car and got in her face. "Not only her."

Regina's chest heaved with every breath and she silenced the war drums in her head but it was slow in coming.

"You can't kill him. Not outright, not without proof. Not whilst you wear that uniform and that badge." David tried again, sensing how close to the edge she was skating. "We'll stop him, but we have to do it my way."

"Fine. I won't kill him." Regina agreed after a long moment and owed him enough to clarify. "Though you may wish you hadn't asked it of me."

"I doubt it." David's voice was hard and Regina tilted her head, her eyes narrowed.

"Are you using me?"

David looked sideways at her.

"Let's have a look inside." He decided after a moment, reaching to try the driver's side door of the car. Regina's hand manacling his wrist stopped him cold.

"David, tell me." She pushed again when he refused to look at her. "I think, if we're to be friends, I should know why you hate each other so much."

"George hates me for what I did to his kingdom. When I turned down the proposal to Midas' daughter, when I reunited her with her love, the kingdom never recovered."

"And…?" Regina knew there was more. She wasn't sure what but Charming wasn't the type to get personal over such a thing, hell, he probably felt guilty about the raise in taxes his actions would have wrought in George's kingdom. For George hadn't been ruined. You can't raise an army with nothing to feed or pay them with.

"He poisoned Snow."

Ah, that was why he hadn't wanted to tell her. Did he really think she was looking for hints and tips after all this time? After the power boost she'd gotten? She could break Snow down to her composite parts upon her return with nothing more than a strand of her hair and a will…not that she'd thought about it. Much.

"He wanted to make her barren, so I'd suffer his pain or something like that."

Regina stiffened, her jaw clenching.

"I see."

"My mother sacrificed herself in order to let Snow have the cure." David stared at his reflection in the window of George's car. "I owe George a debt of pain that I cannot really fully comprehend. He wanted to steal my children from me, to break my wife's heart and he killed my mother…I'm sure you get it."

"I have a faint idea." Regina didn't know what to do.

David gave a humourless chuckle.

"Well, enough of this, time's a wasting." David tried the handle to the door and Regina felt relief at not having to do something drastic like pet his arm or something. In some ways, she'd preferred it when her feelings towards Charming had only been expressed through violence.

"Here, let me." Regina reached past him and David stepped back, expecting the crackle of magic.

Regina surprised him by pulling a stiletto blade from within her sleeve and finessing the lock open. She looked up and found David staring at her.

"What?"

"You can jimmy locks?"

"I can _pick_ locks. Jimmying is different." Regina corrected him, crouching to work at the lock until it clicked. "I've been without magic for nearly thirty years, I had to adapt. They've got books of everything in this world." She smiled when she stood and swung the door open, waving David to precede her into looking inside.

"Criminal." David shook his head but he was smirking. He ducked into the car and leaned over, flicking the lock for the passenger's side.

Regina wasted no time in skirting the car and finding her way inside. She sat on the passenger's seat and began to rummage through the glove compartment. She found papers, many papers. She flipped through them, her brows raising.

"What you got?"

"License and registration for the car, a receipt from Gold's shop –doesn't say what for just what he paid for- a couple of parking tickets and…a gun licence."

"A gun?"

"Magnum .357." Regina's brows rose. "I take it back, his penis extension is bigger."

David snorted but and reached under the driving wheel, flipping the lock for the trunk. Hoisting himself out of the car, he hauled it open and frowned at the empty interior. A length of rope, a blanket, hell, he had the same things in his truck. Nothing unusual. Unless…

David worked the catch for the spare tyre compartment and opened that too.

"Regina."

"Yes?" Regina stepped out of the car, shoving something into her pocket, and joined him at the trunk. She looked down at the contents spread over the spare tyre and her brows rose. "Well, I think we have enough proof for Ruby now."

"He framed her and killed Billy. Bastard." David gathered up the cloak. "He took this so she'd be forced to stay as the wolf. How long has he been planning this?"

"Judging by the way he left all the evidence in his car, not long." Regina picked up the hatchet between gloved thumb and forefinger. "This is one villain I wouldn't mind not getting a second chance."

"You and me both." David weighed the cloak in his hands and eyed the axe. It occurred to him that he couldn't be in two places at once. "You take that to evidence, I'll go to Ruby with the cloak."

"Then what?"

"I'll meet you at the station and we'll go after George." David's eyes fell on the blood stained axe. "I've got a few questions to ask him."

"Want a lift?" Regina lifted her hand, magic sparking from her fingertips and David hesitated. "Sun's setting, Charming."

"Alright." David suppressed his wince when her hand landed on his chest and purple smoke engulfed him. This always made him feel sick to his stomach. When he opened his eyes again, he stood outside the Ugly Duckling.

Regina teleported herself back to the station and blinked when she appeared in the midst of a crowd.

People yelped and fell back from her, a few of them raising their guns.

Guns?

"What's going on?"

Regina turned to find George standing on the steps of the station, mouth open, apparently in the midst of a rousing speech.

"Regina." He looked her up and down. "Wearing Charming's colours too now, I see."

"I wear the colours of the Sheriff's department."

An angry murmur raced through the crowd and Regina ignored it.

She got over her surprise in a hurry. Of course he had a mob. The best weapon against David would be the very people he had sworn to protect. He'd never cut into people he saw as innocent civilians.

Regina knew there was no such thing. Not when they marched against her and hers.

"I take it that everyone here has a licence for the weapons and…seriously? Pitchforks?"

"Citizens are allowed to defend themselves." George looked thrown by her sudden appearance, it wasn't like she had planned it herself, but rallied quickly. He slipped automatically into smarmy lawyer mode.

"Against what?" Regina asked feigning confusion. "I haven't done anything heinous in weeks. Even Gold has been behaving himself. We live in a quiet town."

"The wolf is loose. It's killed a man."

"Which man?" Regina continued to feign ignorance.

"Bill, the mechanic."

"He preferred Billy." Regina bit out. "He wasn't killed by a wolf. He was chopped up into pieces. With an axe."

"Speaking from personal experience?" George's eyes hardened and Regina felt the shift of the crowd. She was keenly aware she was standing in the middle of them. They had guns. She had never tested her shields against such powerful weapons. She had no desire to do so now. Still…there were other options available to her.

"You know," she kept her conversational tone, glancing about her at the crowd, making note of who would fight and who would run, "I have to confess, I'm a little insulted. The mob sent for MY head was a mere score of you yobs, there has to be twice that here."

"We're not after you." George descended the steps, advancing on her. "Yet."

"You say the wolf has killed one person? I killed hundreds. Little bit disproportionate, don't you think?"

"She's a ravening beast!" George was getting angry. Good. That was how she needed him.

"A beast that I can take care of." Regina's voice was cool, deliberately an antithesis to his. "Disperse. You are not needed for this."

"Or what?"

"Really?" Regina arched a brow. "You want to play the escalation game with me? I who cursed this entire town? Go now and nobody gets turned inside out."

"And trust you?!" George laughed at her. "You must be joking!"

"I don't have a sense of humour as far as I'm aware." Regina shrugged a shoulder. "You don't have to trust me, you just have to do as you're told. It's in your best interests, George. If they all leave now, none of them have to know."

Regina felt the change in the crowd. George frowned at her.

"Know what?"

"You didn't think I hadn't figured it out, did you?" She smiled. She measured dark around her. The sun had set, the moon was on the rise. Charming would have Ruby in the cloak by now…the only thing she had to stall for now was dramatic effect.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." George snorted dismissively, turning away from her.

"A piece of it doesn't work, you know!" Regina called after him, succeeding in turning him back. "That red tie of yours, cut from the wolf's cloak, the one that controls her changing. You need the _whole_ cloak, George. Not just a piece of it for a collar."

"What are you talking about?!" George snarled at her, not noticing the way his eyes began to glow.

"Come now, George, you'd better control yourself. You wouldn't want your wolf to eat any of these nice people here." Regina waved to the crowd that had been steadily backing away from her and George. They didn't like the way this conversation was going at all.

"What wolf?!" George heard the snarl Regina put into his voice and clapped a hand over his mouth.

"That one, dear." Regina smirked. "I told you, you need the whole cloak to leash it. You'd best get into the cells. We wouldn't want you hurting anyone."

"What have you done to me?!" George roared. "This is your doing!"

"Me?!" Regina pressed a hand to her chest, keeping half an eye on the advancing silvery moonlight creeping along the street. "I'm not a werewolf, George. I can't give it to you anymore than I could turn you into a djinn. I don't know how you got it but it had nothing to do with me."

"Stop it!" George struggled with the words, his teeth becoming too many and too large for his mouth. "Stop this now!"

"Stop what?" Regina tilted her head.

"Stop it right now!" George pulled his gun, that giant hand cannon of his and levelled it at Regina.

Who did nothing more than lift her chin and look down her nose at him.

"Shooting me won't stop this, George."

"This is a spell, a trick!" George was slavering now, beginning to look rabid. "Killing you will stop it."

"You really think so?" Regina smirked and that seemed to be all he needed to shove him over the edge. "Do you see the moon, George? She sees you."

"I am not a werewolf!"

"Your new beard says otherwise." Regina drawled and George's hand went to his face.

"You're doing this."

"How could I? You can't use magic to turn someone into a werewolf. You have to be born or bitten that way. I'm guessing bitten with you." Regina appeared to remain perfectly calm despite the growing agitation in the crowd and the gun in George's hand.

"Lies!"

"It makes perfect sense to me. Only a werewolf could hate another werewolf as much as you hate Ruby. I mean, that canon of a gun, the mob, framing her with someone's death? That speaks of a vendetta that I would be proud of. What's the matter, George, jealous that she's got control you never had?"

"You'll die for this, you bitch!"

"If anyone's going to suffer from canine insults here, it should really be you." Regina shrugged a shoulder. "I'm not the one turning into a different shape after all. Just you. In front of your very own mob no less."

"Not once you're dead." With a snarl, George levelled his gun.

Regina's eyes flew wide, she hadn't actually thought he'd do it. Her hand snapped up and the sound of the gun going off was a roar of sound in the night.

Blood splattered and Regina spun with the impact of the bullet. Her body went limp and she crumpled to the ground.

George stood, looking haggard and wild, eyes still glowing, teeth still lengthening, and stared down at her body.

His head snapped up, the growth of hair on his head and jaw shining silver in the moonlight, when a blood curdling howl rose into the night.

**The Ugly Duckling**

David shook off the purple smoke from the teleportation and blinked away the magic. His stomach roiled but he muscled that down too. Hurrying into the pub, he nodded to the bouncers, and scanned the interior of the pub for the familiar figure of Daniel.

"Daniel!" He spotted the other man uncharacteristically behind the bar and invited himself straight behind it, sidling past Eugene. "I got it, I got the cloak."

"Great." Daniel brightened. "Ruby will be glad."

"She's still down there?"

Daniel nodded and threw back the trapdoor leading down into the beer cellar. He preceded David down into the gloomy light below and David hurried after him, ignoring the looks they garnered on their way. He clattered down the stairs and stilled when he saw Ruby.

Ruby sat on the bed, her hands buried in her hair, massive stone chains dangling from her wrists. Her knees were up against her chest and she rocked back and forth to herself, murmuring constantly under her breath.

"Don't change. You are the wolf the wolf is you. Don't change. You are the wolf the wolf is you. Don't change…"

"Ruby," David cautiously approached, "I have your cloak."

David fell back a step when Ruby was suddenly right in his face, her arms stretched back behind her, the chains creaking against their moorings in the wall.

"Where's Regina?" Ruby's eyes were wild, her skin too pale. Her teeth seemed to be too large for her mouth. "She's scared. I can feel it."

"Ruby, no, she's gone to the station. We found evidence, evidence that it was George that killed Billy and not you. You're innocent, Ruby."

"Not a day in my life." Ruby's voice was quiet and her eyes focussed on something no one else could see. Her head tilted. "Her heart's pounding. I can hear it."

"Regina's fine, Ruby. I promise you." David tried to edge closer, put the cloak about her shoulders. Give them all a little piece of mind.

He might have succeeded had both Ruby and Daniel jerked.

"What was that?" Daniel spun on his heel, looking up to the open trapdoor over their heads.

"Now she's bleeding!"

Ruby lunged, the chains torn from the wall as if they'd been held there with putty rather than grafted to the foundations of the building. A roar exploded from the woman as she morphed, her form becoming fluid and amorphous. She shimmered, one moment a woman, the next a gigantic wolf and the remnants of the chains left in her wake. She had shifted clean out of them.

She was a snarling shadow, soaring over David's head, bounding past Daniel and bursting up behind the bar of the Ugly Duckling. There were screams and shouts, Daniel being the only one fast enough on her tail, but he needn't have worried.

Ruby hurdled the bar and bounded into the throng in the busy pub. They scattered like a flock of pigeons upset by a cat and she bounded again, already clean across the bar. The door was sent spinning from its hinges and skipping over the street and Ruby hit the street with all four paws set to full gallop.

She tore through the town, the moon high and fat above her, the wind in her fur, the road hard and alien beneath her paws. She threw back her head and howled, the buildings rushing past her in a blur of greys and yellow lights. She could scent it coppery and shocking in the alpine night. Her sister's blood. Her pack mate harmed on this night and rage rose in her like a lava. She roared in a sound no wolf could make, her anger boiling from her in waves. Her eyes gleamed so dark a gold they were nearly red and her jaws gaped wide, crimson tongue lolling and white teeth shining in the moonlight.

Teeth that would soon drip red with the blood of whoever had hurt her pack.

_**Outside the Station…**_

Regina groaned. That had hurt.

That had hurt a LOT.

She dragged her arm out from beneath her body and got her other hand under her. She could smell her own blood and hear the howling in the night. Great. She kept trusting Charming to do ONE thing at a time and he could never manage it. Was it any wonder that she wasn't a team player?

Come to think of it, that howling was a lot closer than it should be.

Regina blearily sat up, cradling her bloodied hand on her lap. The mob had dispersed with the gunshot and George being overtaken by apparent lycanthropy. She looked over to him and her brows rose at what she saw.

He had completely succumbed to the transformation, writhing and howling. His gun lay forgotten on the ground and he savaged at his clothes, tearing them from his body. The moonlight speared into him in shafts, shredding his humanity, peeling the beast out from within.

Grizzled white fur erupted from beneath his splitting skin, his eyes burned with a lurid blue light, jaws snapping and gnashing at nothing, ears lengthening and his senses imploding as they were sent sky high with the wolf form he was being forced to take.

Regina smirked.

"Idiot." Regina laboured to her feet and groaned again.

Damn, that had been like getting hit with a hammer. Regina turned to the nearest street lamp and studied her palm. She ignored the screaming throng that had been a mob moments ago and gripped the butt of the bullet lodged into her skin and yanked it out with a wet shlep of sound.

Bullets were faster and smaller than crossbow bolts, their kinetic force greater, but the basics were the same. Deflect and catch before it can ricochet. Not as impressive as snatching a flying arrow from the air in front of a town hall's worth of peasants, but she knew of no one else who could catch a .357 without even breaking a bone so she didn't think she was doing too badly.

George continued to howl in the throes of his agony, fighting the change with every fibre of his being.

Which only made it worse for himself really. If he just gave into it, it wouldn't hurt nearly so much.

Regina leaned forward and caught her hands on her knees. She huffed out a breath and decided to wait it out. Once he was completely transformed, he'd be a lot easier to deal with.

Regina hadn't been lying when she'd said she couldn't turn him into a werewolf. No one could do that aside from another werewolf. She could, however, turn him into a _wolf._

Just a wolf. No shape shifting, no vast speed or strength, just a wolf.

She'd always noticed that George's hands were impeccably manicured, it hadn't been until she'd been rummaging in the car and she'd found his nail clippings in the ashtray that she'd realised he did it himself. Hair was good for a spell, nails were better, nails rested on blood.

A tooth would have made it go quicker too, of course, but Regina hadn't wanted to risk trying to knock one loose when he'd still had that gun in his hands. The spell was strong enough. She'd make him a wolf whether he wanted it or not.

At least, she would if the stubborn bastard every succumbed to his fate and let the magic do as it would. He was really only hurting himself. Stuck somewhere between human and wolf.

He looked mostly like a mangy and emaciated polar bear right then. Writhing on his back and gargling awful sounds into the night in time with the gushing steaming breaths gasping from within his misshapen chest.

Regina winced. She had been happy to do it to him but all of this squalling and wailing was just undignified.

"Oh stop it." She snapped at him and straightened, watching him kick out of the last of his clothes and claw at his own head, raking furrows into his fur and skin. "You lost, take your medicine and admit it."

George stopped his self-flagellation long enough to roar at her and lunge. Regina rolled her eyes, his legs were mismatched and his body too fluid still to move properly. This wasn't a werewolf transformation. A completely fluid energy state between one form and another, lasting a mere second and being completely painless. Regina's spell was rewriting his DNA strand by strand and he was fighting it every step of the damn way.

Idiot.

Regina kicked his foot out from under him and he thrashed to the ground.

"What's this?" Regina's gaze landed on a scrap of black that did not belong. Stooping, she scooped up the raggedy material and frowned.

The hat.

The hat that David had squashed when Emma and Snow had been sucked into it and he had idiotically tried to follow them. Oh how her life might have been different had he succeeded.

Regina yelped when a clawed hand closed on her ankle and she was bowled over when George snatched at the hat and stuffed it into the newly enlarged gape of his mouth, chomping down, tearing it to shreds and devouring it as much as the magic that it contained.

"Get off!" Regina tried to snatch the hat back from between his teeth without losing some fingers she had grown attached to. She was more irritated than anything else, but as far as Ruby was concerned, George was trying to eat her.

The brown wolf fell on them like the wrath of a primitive god and it was easy to see why hardened soldiers would flee from the frontlines and risk even Regina's displeasure for desertion when confronted with such a beast.

Bigger than any normal wolf, the size of a pony. Four and a half feet at the shoulder, over twice that long from black nose to swishing tail, eyes that burned like coals, jaws that could crush bone, lined with knives of ivory teeth and all of that wrapped in fur the colour of pine trees in the dark and a speed no mortal creature could hope to match.

Ruby, having seen Regina knocked to the ground, scented her blood, zeroed in on the culprit. Crimson magic sparked from her eyes and she roared. Not a wolf sound, not a human sound, a rage sound. The audible construct of the insensate anger that rioted through her. The righteous fury of a sister seeing her sibling harmed. It didn't matter that there was no blood between them, not to the moon and not the wolf. The magic had been cast and the ties bound.

Regina was sent flying, one of Ruby's paws kicking her out of the way and she pounced on George, claws rending and teeth tearing.

George, newly equipped to defend himself against such a foe, twisted onto his back and clawed at her with all four limbs. Twenty claws raking into Ruby's chest and underbelly. His mouth, seeming to split his still almost human shaped head in half, snapped and clashed with mismatched teeth.

Clumps and tufts of fur flew, blood pattered onto the street and both wolf and malformed monster went at it hammer and tongs. Snarls rose into the night air amongst the steam of the overheated bodies of both magical beasts tearing at one another.

"Ruby, stop!" Regina tried to get close enough to get between both beasts but neither of them were willing to part long enough for her to intervene.

"Regina, get out of the way." Daniel was suddenly there and he snatched her up off the street and turned, thrusting her into David's arms.

"Daniel!" Regina lunged, trying to stop him, but he ignored her and waded into the wolves.

He wasn't as fast as a werewolf but it would seem that he was more than a match in strength. Daniel grasped great handfuls of Ruby's scruff and hauled, the chords in his neck and the muscles in his arms standing out in sharp relief when he pitted his strength against not one but two unnatural wolves.

Ruby had her teeth locked on George's neck. Not over his throat but into the meat where his neck met his shoulder. Her teeth were sunk in to the gumline and she wasn't letting go for anything.

Daniel worked his hands tighter, working his hands around her neck so he could press against her throat.

Magic or not, Ruby still had a physical body and that body had reflexes. Daniel made her gag and –in that instant when she coughed and parted her jaws- he hauled her away.

Ruby fought wildly, clawing and snarling, desperately trying to get back to George, to finish her job of defending her pack, but Daniel was having none of it. He hurled Ruby to the ground and knelt on her chest, a hand on her neck and her cheek keeping her pinned to the road.

David just as quickly released Regina and rushed forward, flinging the cloak over Ruby.

Daniel sprang away before he crushed Ruby's smaller frame under his weight and his eyes landed on Regina. He had a moment to grin at her, glad to see she was fine, before a massive weight fell on him.

"No!" Regina screamed and the spell that answered her call was not one that would have occurred to her on any night other than this. It wouldn't even have worked on any other night than this.

She felt it come, the strength, the instincts, the speed and –most of all- the _rage_. How DARE George touch her mate?

Regina, Regina the werewolf, flew through the air and tackled George before he could sink one claw into Daniel's skin. They both went sprawling onto the road, tumbling over one another again and again.

Regina came out on top.

_Submit! _She snarled in the wolf language. Making herself heard in the way that all werewolves could.

_Never!_ George bucked her off and Regina twisted like a cat in the air, scrambling to put herself between George and her family. She snarled with a sound like a chainsaw.

_So_ _be it._ Regina growled, lowering to a crouch and George flew at her.

If Ruby's mindless savaging of George had been brutal and awe inspiring in its mindless ferocity, Regina's was terrifying for its control.

She ducked under his lunge and leapt up into his body, sending George sprawling. He grunted when he hit the street and tumbled end over end. He was almost entirely a wolf now, only the whites of his eyes remained human.

_Submit!_ Regina demanded again.

George couldn't summon words this time and he lunged again. Regina sidestepped him once more, gripping him by the scruff and hurling him to the ground, knocking the air from his lungs.

Like this, she was bigger than he. He was just a wolf, the mass increase that the moon gave werewolves not being applicable to him.

_Stop this._ Regina ordered him. _Stop or you shall regret it._

George roared his defiance and lunged again, not looking at Regina, looking behind her to the people she protected.

No.

Never again.

Regina darted in, fast enough to show she could have done it at any time, and closed her teeth around his foreleg.

With a single clip of her bear trap sized teeth, she snipped the limb off at the elbow.

The paw and most of his leg wheeled through the air with an arc of blood and splattered to the ground. It twitched and convulsed, shrinking, popping and bubbling, reverting to a human hand with perfectly manicured fingers grasping at nothing.

Regina couldn't have reattached it even if she had wanted to.

George screamed, reeling back, animal pain taking over his brain and the last of his humanity left him. He howled and quailed away from her, writhing in pain, ears pinned back, tail clamped between his legs and –just like that- she stood over a wolf who happened to be called George.

Regina shifted, taking human form once more, and held out her hands.

"Easy," she edged closer to the terrified wolf that looked at her with wide blue eyes, whining plaintively. "Easy now, I'll fix it."

The wolf didn't know why he believed her. This strange creature that loomed over him but he had the sense she was in charge and to disobey her would not be…it wouldn't be wolf.

"Ssshhh…" Regina rested her hand over George the wolf's eyes and her other over the bleeding stump of his leg.

Magic flared beneath her palms and the wolf slept. Another moment and she had stopped the bleeding, sealing the wound. It would be angry and pink, need several days of healing –not to mention a cone of shame to keep him from licking it- but he would live.

She hadn't killed him.

Regina shrugged out of her coat and drew it over the sleeping wolf. To stop him from getting cold.

Regina might have quite happily killed George the king. George the wolf deserved no cruelty from her. He wouldn't know anything about vendettas or hating Charming or guns or framing Ruby. He was just a wolf.

Regina's eyes landed on something and her mouth turned down. Reaching out, she lifted the tattered remains of the hat. She gathered it in her hands and slowly stood. Turning it over and over.

Ruined.

It was completely ruined.

It had been crumpled but essentially still whole, but now it was nothing more than ribbing and rags. George had devoured most of the fabric in his rabid state and –Regina passed her hand over the remains, not even a flicker- he had eaten all of the magic.

Great, now she had a new pet, because she sure as hell wasn't leaving a magic freaking wolf with anyone else and it wasn't within her to destroy George in his current condition.

Regina was dragged –literally- from her thoughts by Daniel's brawny arms engulfing her.

"You scared me!"

Regina smiled when no one could see. She felt the aftershocks of adrenaline begin to make themselves known. Handling George had been easy, even the mob had been an almost pleasant thrill, but catching the bullet, the werewolf shift, she began to shake so hard she nearly rattled.

"Regina? Are you alright?" Daniel's voice filled with worry.

"I-I'm fine." Regina's teeth were chattering. No, this wasn't adrenaline, this wasn't how she reacted to that kind of rush. Her legs felt like they belonged to someone else. Her knees buckled and Daniel lowered her to the street whilst she tried to keep her breathing even and not pass out on him.

"David!" Daniel bellowed.

"What is it?" David was there in an instant, Ruby at his shoulder.

"I don't know, she just started shaking."

"I'm f-f-fine." Regina shivered, hugging herself, the hat carcass crushed against her chest. "Just nee-eed a moment."

"It's change chills." Ruby gently pushed Daniel aside and knelt beside Regina, the red of her cloak billowing around them both. "You turned into a werewolf, didn't you?" Ruby laughed. Only Regina would do the impossible and then insist she was just dandy afterwards.

"I didn't-t-t think. J-j-ju-ust did it." Regina couldn't seem to get warm.

"You didn't give it long enough to take." Ruby rested her fingers against Regina's forehead and frowned. "You're burning up."

"I'm freezing!" Regina disagreed fervently.

"What can we do?" Daniel shifted around so Regina could lean back against him. He wrapped her in his arms and rubbed at her back and shoulders to try and warm her.

"You need to change again, Reggie." Ruby ducked her head so she was at eye level with Regina. "I need you to call the wolf and turn again."

Regina couldn't speak she was shivering so violently. She shook her head, huddling closer to Daniel. She didn't even scowl at Ruby's nickname for her.

"I know you just want to curl up and sleep for a week, but you have to call the wolf. You just took a big old bite out of magic that comes all the way from the moon, it's got to go somewhere. If you don't use it, it's going to get rowdy." Ruby spoke calmly with the authority of the only active werewolf on the whole damn planet.

"T-the hat." Regina ground out, prying her arm away from her body and shivering it at David. "George had it. I-I-I'm so sorry, David."

"Don't worry about it," David kept his reassuring smile. It was easier to focus on Regina's problems than his own right then. "You need to do what Ruby says."

"What happens if she can't?" Daniel spoke in a low voice to Ruby.

Ruby's eyes rose to meet his from under the shadow of her hood and she was quiet for long enough to make it clear she couldn't think of a euphemism that wouldn't make him lose his mind.

"T-Things w-w-will get hairy." Regina laughed breathlessly and reached blindly. "Help me."

"Sure." Ruby hooked her arms under Regina's without hesitation and helped her to her feet. She was still shivering violently but seemed determined.

"George." Regina remembered suddenly.

"We'll take care of him." David nodded, watching her carefully. She looked like a drowning victim. Pale and tinged in blue.

"K-k-keep him away from people." Regina spoke from between clenched teeth in order to try and stem her shivering. "He ate the hat, I don't know what it will do to him."

"We'll put him in one of the pens in the animal shelter." David nodded.

"I'll keep watch over him." Daniel stood, his hands clenched at his sides. He looked helpless and felt terrified.

"Come here." Regina reached for him and he went to her willingly, taking her in his arms again. "I'll be fine."

Ruby set about removing her cloak and handing it to David. She kept a weather eye on Regina but let her have her moment with Daniel.

"See that you are." He warned her, kissing her hair.

He was caught completely by surprise when she tilted her head back and went up on her toes, kissing him on the mouth instead. The contact was electrifying, wild energy crackling between them, and it didn't last long because of her shivers, but it was the first time since the stables that _she_ had chosen to kiss _him._

"Lycanthropy isn't a curse. True love's kiss doesn't cure it." Regina spoke quietly against his mouth.

Daniel frowned. That was why she had kissed him?

"I knew that," she continued a little breathlessly, "I kissed you because I wanted to." Her hands squeezed his.

"Regina…" Ruby was watching the newest member of her pack with worry.

"Okay." Regina glanced over at Ruby and then looked back to Daniel. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Promise?"

"Noon, by the Granny's. I'll take you on a date."

He chuckled and cupped her face in his hands, looking at her as if it was for the last time.

"I love you."

"I love you." She smiled somewhat helplessly and then hauled herself from his grip before she gave into the insidious temptation to huddle in his arms and stay there. It was exactly what she wanted to do, what her human body wanted to do to try and get rid of the wolf in her soul, but if she did that…well, it wouldn't end well for anyone.

She sucked in a deep breath, called the magic and –when she opened her eyes again- she was the wolf once more.

Oh _yes_.

This was good, this was natural.

Her tail whisked in the cool night air, she flexed her paws against the rough asphalt of the road and inhaled the scents of the entire county. Opening her eyes, the world was a wash of sepia and silver, but she could see so much more. The stars were luminous over her head, the moon a stunning spotlight like a second sun. The ripples and eddies of the night air through her fur made her feel like she was touching the entire world. The hues and flushes of scents seemed to be more colour than she had ever seen as a human and the night was alive with sound and symphony. She could _hear_ the world turning in the ancient song of spheres.

Despite all that, she trotted over to Daniel first and gave his hand a snuffle with her black nose. He spread his fingers, not wanted to give insult in wolf etiquette, and let her press her brow against his knuckles.

A soft yip behind her turned Regina and she found a sister wolf waiting on the street for her. Ruby.

Her sister!

A sudden joy filled Regina and she threw back her head and howled, rearing a little and dancing with her front paws.

Ruby's ears perked and her tail flew up in surprise. Then she joined her sister in the howl and their haunting cries rose through the night.

Then they were gone.

Daniel, his eyes keener than David's, watched them disappear towards the tree line. They cavorted and chased one another, yipping and howling with sounds so low humans couldn't hear them.

She looked…happy.

Daniel was glad. Regina had always wanted more family and now she had the chance for one.

Daniel grinned.

Now _they_ had a chance for one.

Things were finally looking up.

It was a pity that he had no idea what was going to happen the very next morning before they ever got that date.


	20. Chapter 20

**Ta-ta-ta-TAAAH!**

**Oh look, an update on time :D**

**Hoooo boy! Is excite. **

**Syed; I think most of your questions will be answered in this chapter. **

**Also, getting a new computer so I was trawling through my old stuff on my harddrive and cutting the chaff as it were, and I came across an old fic I wrote when I first started watching OUaT. A Graham/Regina ficlet which was going to be a lot darker than this one is. Theirs was a really twisted relationship and I was having a great time exploring it. It basically featured what might happen should the tables be turned between them and was set in season one before the curse broke.**

**It's only three or four chapters long but I was wondering if anyone might be interested in reading it?**

**Heh, there's also one where King Sombra from My Little Pony; Friendship is Magic, turns up in Storybrooke and demands Regina help him get back to Equestria because she ripped out his heart all those years ago. Yeah, my brain goes strange places and it was written to be a lot funnier than this story is. There are a lot of good scenes in it (Henry takes on four older boys and beats the shit out of them in defence of Regina, being the least of which) but I dropped it in favour of writing this one because they're both set around the same time and I didn't want to JK Rowling it and do the same basic plotline twice. I won't post that one because it's incredibly unlikely that I would ever finish it and the characterisation is balls. **

**Anyway, without further ado, werewolf and faerie shenanigans ensue. **

**Read, love, review **

**Chapter 20 – Cursing Blue**

_**The Forest**_

_Ruby._

Ruby grumbled at the voice and snuggled deeper into the bed of leaves she had collapsed on the night before.

_Ruby, wake up._

"Five more…min'ts…" Ruby feebly waved away whoever was bothering her.

She was tired. She and Regina had galloped the night away under the full moon. There was another night of it ahead of them if Regina hadn't gotten over the change chills. She had seemed fine after a couple of hours in the wolf shape the night previous, but it wasn't something you wanted to take chances with. Turning from a human to another species entirely was a hefty piece of magic and you didn't want all that power running riot.

Ruby had seen wolves burned up from it and it was never pretty. The magic just consumed them. Ate them whole.

She frowned and shuddered, cuddling deeper into herself.

_Ruby._ The voice was firmer. _Get UP. I have to show you something._

Ruby grumbled but made no move to rise.

She shot upright when a thunderous bark sounded right in her ear.

"Jesus, Regina!" Ruby's heart galloped in her chest and she panted in surprise. "What the hell?!"

_You wouldn't get up._ The gigantic wolf, Regina, didn't look contrite in the slightest.

Ruby's eyes widened, staring at Regina's wolf form. She glanced up as if to double check that the sun was high in the sky and then back to Regina. Wolf Regina.

"What happened? Why are you still a wolf? Are you okay?"

_I'm fine._ Regina lifted a paw and waved it away in a manner that would have been funny had Regina not been breaking several laws of magic right then.

Werewolves turned at the full moon. End of. Advanced wolves could pick and choose when they turned over the three nights of Wolf's Time, but it was always at night because the moon had to be watching in order for them to do it. That was where they got their power from. They couldn't do it during the day.

It didn't happen.

Maybe Ruby should have explained that to her new pack.

_Stop gawping, it's unattractive._ Regina shifted, sitting straighter and tucking her tail about her legs in a move far too cat-like for any self-respecting wolf to adopt. _This is what I wanted to show you._

"Are you stuck? Can't you turn back? The sun's up, you should have switched back when that happened. I don't get it. Wolves CAN'T change during the day."

_And what good is that? It occurs to me that, even though you retain a great portion of strength and speed outwith Wolf's Time, it is a bare fraction of what you have under the full moon._ Regina cocked her head and looked out at the forest for a moment, gathering her thoughts. Difficult to do when she could hear a rabbit over there, smell an interesting trail just ahead of her, and taste the refreshing stream a dozen or so yards that way. She shook it away. _I figured it out._

"Figured what out?" Ruby rubbed at her eyes and tried not to panic. David would kill her. He'd had his new deputy for all of five minutes and Ruby had turned her into the K-9 division already. Ruby didn't even want to _think_ about how Daniel would react.

_How we can turn without the moon._

"That's impossible."

It is a little known fact that wolves have eyebrows. People are rarely close enough and calm enough to note how expressive a wolf face is, but it is quite emotive in its own terrifying way. Regina cocked an eyebrow at Ruby then.

"Okay, fine, you get that one, but it SHOULD be impossible."

_Why? The moon affects everything. Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it isn't there. Do the tides stop when the moon is not over the oceans? It is always a full moon _somewhere_. Once you know that, it's quite simple. _

"If you say so." Ruby tucked her knees up towards her chest and looped her arms around them. "I'm not the one that can take any form she wants."

Regina snuffed a snort of irritation.

_You're not listening._ Regina walked her front paws out in front of her and lay down sphinx style so that she was closer to Ruby's height rather than towering over her. _The ability to change is always within you, Ruby. I'm not a werewolf, not really. I can turn into one, yes, but I would only be a werewolf. According to you, I should not be able to take this dire wolf form without the moon to guide me, yet here I am. If I simply turned into a werewolf as you say they exist then I would be in human form right now. A werewolf under the skin, a creature with the ability to take on the form of a wolf, but appearing no different to my usual form._

"My head hurts." Ruby grumbled. "So…you're not using _your_ magic to take this form, you're using werewolf magic to do it?"

_I am still a sorceress underneath the werewolf. Can a normal werewolf do this?_

Ruby yelped and scrambled backwards when Regina lifted her muzzle and howled, but this time there was an accompaniment of fire along with the haunting cry of a wolf.

"No." Ruby spoke weakly.

_See? Your kind are not as limited as you believe. I would wager that, with practice, you might be able to take on forms other than that of the wolf._ Regina smirked, smoke still trailing from her nostrils. _I don't think you realise how vast your powers truly are. You can take on a different FORM. That is a skill that only the most advanced can learn. Between your shapes, you are entirely energy, the possibilities are limitless. Do you really think that even the moon can hold sway over you that much?_

"I…" Ruby looked out over the forest and smiled softly. What would it be like? To run as a wolf whenever she wanted…to fly as a hawk? Could she really do it? "You'd teach me?"

_Of course._ Regina dipped her head in a nod.

"Okay." Ruby nodded. "Show me."

Regina chuckled, a strange chuffing sound.

_You smell magic, yes?_

Ruby nodded. That was as close an approximation as any.

_Then scent carefully._

Regina deliberately made the change slow as much as she could.

Ruby scented it.

The moonlight, that which she had assumed was moonlight, came from within Regina rather than being beaten down on her from the light of the moon. It boiled up from the deepest, darkest, parts of her. suffusing her entire body and melting it apart. For a second, a bare hint of a moment, Regina was something else entirely. Something wonderful. Without shape or restriction, she was _her_. Not the suit of meat that was her body, not the image everyone else saw, but all the bits that made her Regina. Her thoughts, her feelings, her soul.

She was more beautiful, brighter, than Ruby had imagined possible.

Then the light died down and Regina was sitting on the ground opposite Ruby. She was panting, a sweat slicked her skin, slowing something so fast to something someone could watch was no easy task. It would be like a civilian trying to control a sneeze into stop-motion.

"You get that?"

Ruby thought about it a moment and then suddenly she was the wolf, towering over Regina. Both of them grinned, showing off all their teeth.

_I think I got it._

_**The Animal Shelter,**_

Two ginormous wolves trotted along the street. Each of them as big as a pony, unmindful of cars and staring humans both, and jogging along shoulder to shoulder. Both of them were a deep brown, almost black, colour with thick shaggy coats and lolling red tongues panting from between huge ivory teeth.

One was slightly bigger than the other and she had lurid golden eyes that hinted at a playful wildness that was just waiting to be unleashed. The second was slightly smaller, her eyes so dark that she seemed to be more a shadow than a real animal, and her ears twitched at every sound. Her teeth had a cruel gleam to them and there was the very real sense that she would not only bite someone if she had to but was looking forward to the opportunity to do so.

Their destination seemed to be, ironically, the animal shelter and neither of them seemed surprised to find the Sheriff and Granny waiting for them outside. They had followed their scents there, after all. Henry, however, was not expected.

A burst of magic and the smaller wolf turned between one step and the next. Regina shook off the change and hurried to her son.

"Henry? Are you alright?" She went to him immediately, tipping his chin up so she could study his face.

"I'm alright." Henry wound his arms around her waist and huddled into her. He didn't speak for a long moment, seeking comfort from the woman who he had always gone to when he was frightened.

She smelled different. She smelled wild and of the forest, but under that was the apples and her shampoo and the smell that was just _mom_.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, sweetheart." Regina stroked his hair and then looked up to David, her face concerned and a question in her eyes.

David nodded his head towards the animal shelter. They'd talk where Henry couldn't hear.

"That's good." Henry made no move to pull away and Regina grew more concerned. This wasn't like him. He was fiercely independent. The only time he got like this was when he was sick and he hadn't needed comfort like this since he was much younger. "David told me what happened. Did you really bite off George's leg?"

"Well…he started it." Regina looked down into Henry's face when he tilted his chin up to look at her.

Henry gave a watery smile.

"You did it so you wouldn't have to kill him, right?"

"Yes."

"Good, I'm glad."

Regina was struck then by how different Henry's childhood was from that of other children. Other boys didn't have to ask their mothers why they had dismembered people nor be grateful that she had chosen to maim and cripple rather than kill. Henry had always been special to her and he always would be. He had grown up as the son of a Mayor and now that of the Evil Queen so he would never be Average Joe's son…but he shouldn't have to be her moral compass either.

"Hey," Henry gave her a squeeze so that she focussed on him again, "you are getting better. I know it."

Regina smiled. She had always touted that she knew Henry better than any of his biological family claimed to but she seemed to have a non-existent memory when it came to remembering that street went both ways.

"I'm glad." Regina dropped a kiss on his forehead and he nodded, finally pulling a little away from her. Dropping his arms from around her waist but leaning into her side and resting his head under her hand while she stroked his hair.

Regina lifted her head to take in the rest of the group and found Granny advancing on her.

"Girl." Granny stopped uncertainly and watched Regina. She spoke stiltedly. "Thank you."

"For what?" Regina looked wary. She wasn't _afraid_ of Granny, per say, but she was certainly aware that she didn't want to go toe-to-toe with the woman.

"For saving Ruby, for taking care of George…you didn't have to." Granny looked surprised that Regina wouldn't know what she was talking about but Regina wasn't exactly familiar with the concept of gratitude.

"Yes I did." Regina was looking more and more uncomfortable the longer the conversation went on. She seemed almost defensive. "She's my sister. You made certain of that and –if anybody knows anything about me- it's that I tend to get attached to family." Regina squeezed Henry's shoulder and Granny smirked.

"Maybe I did know that." Granny smiled when Ruby –still looking absurdly pleased with herself from having learned a new trick- joined them to lean on Granny's shoulder.

"Heya, Henry, you look awful." Her face took on a look of concern when she saw Henry.

"Thanks." Henry smiled weakly and Regina rubbed at his shoulder.

"Tell you what," Ruby stepped forward and sank down in front of him into a crouch, "how about you and me go down to the diner and make up the biggest breakfast. I dunno about anyone else, but I'm starving."

Regina felt her stomach growl in appreciation of the sentiment.

"Mom?" Henry looked up at her.

"You go on ahead. I need to check on George."

"The vet says he's fine." David chimed in. "You can go with Henry."

"The vet doesn't know everything I do." Regina corrected him.

David caught on, the hat….and Regina had bitten him when she was a werewolf. The last thing David wanted was George having the ability to come back whenever it most suited him. If Ruby could now apparently switch whenever she wanted, what was to stop George from doing it?

"Can I come with you?" Henry looked up at Regina again.

"No, honey. George might be tame with me, but I don't trust him with anyone else." Regina went down into a crouch beside him. "You go with Ruby. She's your aunt now, you'll have some stuff to talk about, I would think."

"Yeah," Ruby grinned, "I get to be the bad influence that gives you too much candy and lets you watch movies you're not supposed to."

Henry smiled, aware that he was being deflected but going along with it. He was mainly glad that his mom was okay. She seemed peaceful today. Even if he wasn't, it was something that she was.

"Okay."

"I'll be along soon." Regina promised.

"Come on, short-stack." Ruby held out her hand and Henry went to her, Ruby settling her arm around his shoulders and giving a nod to Regina. She'd look out for him as if he were her own.

Because he kind of was now.

"I'll keep an eye on him." Granny reassured Regina and looked uncertain a moment.

Regina yelped in surprise when she was suddenly hauled into a somewhat terrifying bear hug. It lasted a second and seemed to make them both incredibly uncomfortable, but Granny had determined that it had to be done.

"Be wary of that wolf. He's not like us." Granny levelled a finger in Regina's face. "And don't keep your man waiting. A promise is a promise."

"I never actually promised…I'll be there." Regina caved under Granny's glare.

"See that you are." Granny nodded.

Regina huffed out a sigh and watched as Granny hurried off to join Henry and Ruby.

"Family's tough." She spoke mainly to herself but David replied anyway.

"Yeah, but they tend to be worth it."

"In my experience, not so much." Regina shook her head and ignored David's penetrating stare. She tried to deflect. "So, why isn't Henry in school?"

"He didn't sleep last night."

"Again?" Regina looked up at David, concern etched on her face. "Because of me?"

"I dunno." David didn't look untroubled by it either. "He tossed and turned all night and eventually gave up at about four this morning. I found him staring at the TV when I got up this morning. I figured he must be worried about you and he seems a lot better for having seen you but…" He shrugged.

"Maybe he's missing…" Regina looked away from him and down the street to where she could still see Henry growing smaller and smaller with distance. "She's been gone for a while."

"We'll get them back." David rested his hand on her shoulder but it seemed more to steady himself than comfort her.

"I _am_ sorry about the hat. I tried to get it back. I really did. I didn't even know he had it. I…"

"I believe you."

Regina stalled under those three little words. She'd had no idea they would mean so much to her. She looked up at him and found him smiling down at her.

"Really?"

"Really." He nodded. "I don't expect you to have forgiven Snow, forty years is a long time of entrenched habit, but I do believe you're my friend and you wouldn't hurt me like that. You might be psychotic and making friends is something alien to you but you're crazy loyal to those you choose to be with. It's there for anyone to see."

"Then how come you're the only one to have ever seen it?" Regina arched a brow at him and smirked. He was very sweet sometimes. Maybe Snow didn't have _terrible_ taste.

"Henry sees it, he showed me actually. Daniel, Rachel, Ruby, Granny, they all see it. Other people will too. Give them time."

"No thanks." Regina wrinkled her nose in distaste. "You people are all so ridiculously affectionate as it is. How am I supposed to get anything done with everyone _hugging_ all the time?"

David chuckled and dropped his hand from her shoulder.

"Now, about that wolf of mine, what have you done with him?" Regina quickly changed the subject before he could try and endear her to the dwarves or something.

"He's in isolation." David started up the steps to the animal shelter, allowing himself to be distracted. "We had Carson, the vet, check him over. He seems alright, a bit dehydrated from blood loss and a little groggy from whatever sleeping whammy you put on him. We put an IV in and a buster collar on him and left him to sleep it off."

"His leg?"

"Healed like it's years old apparently." David held the door open for her and Regina nodded her thanks to him.

"Good."

"So, what are you thinking?" David directed her to the isolation ward.

"That he ate a hat that contained magic capable of opening portals between worlds and I have no idea what that will do to a wolf that used to be a man. That he is a wolf that used to be a man and I have no idea how much of the man remains. That I crippled him and –while I was quite happy to do that to the bastard of a man that he was- I've sentenced an old wolf to a life as a cripple and he couldn't hope to fend for himself were we to release him into the wild. That I bit him while I was a werewolf and so he might have the ability to turn back into George or perhaps even some…Hulk style wolf come the full moon. I'm thinking, if that is the case, then he'll have to be put down and…I don't know if I can do that." Regina stopped and looked up at him before they could go through the door into the specialised ward.

"I've never killed in cold blood before." She frowned. "You might not believe it, but I had my reasons. For everything I did, I had reasons. Sitting him on a table –and he would go if I asked him, I'm his alpha as far as he's concerned- sticking a needle in his paw…I couldn't do that."

David frowned down at her and realised he could live to be a hundred years old and she would _still_ be able to surprise him. He smiled.

"Let's just go and have a look at him with those magical hands of yours. We can worry about the what if's and why for's later."

"Don't borrow trouble?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Because that's a sure fire way of getting killed?"

"I've lived this long." David shrugged his shoulders and she rolled her eyes at him, pushing her way into isolation.

"You're so simple." Regina could sense where George was instantly. She might not be a werewolf full time, but it would seem that her wolf was there to stay in the back of her mind. So far it had only been helpful, perhaps she'd take David's advice and leave well enough alone until it became a problem.

"I'm not stupid." David made sure to close the door behind them.

"I didn't say you were. Not today anyway. I said you were simple. There is a great difference betwixt the two. Hello, George." Regina found his cage and sank down into a crouch in front of it.

George the wolf opened his eyes and lifted his head. He whined softly, his thick tail thudding against the stainless steel sides of the hospital cage. It was made deliberately smaller so sick animals couldn't hurt themselves by moving around too much and George was large for a wolf. Large for a wolf was something indeed.

Regina as a werewolf was gigantic and George was gigantic for a wolf. Maybe he really did have a bit of werewolfism in him already.

He spanned the cage from one side to the other and even then he was curled up a little. His fur was thick and looked softer than a normal wolf's fur. Possibly something to do with it once having been human hair. He was mostly white with markings of silver over his face, back, tail and legs. He had been a redhead in his youth and it showed with an arrow of crimson streaking from his nose towards his eyes, the tips of his ears were red too and a streak of it ran along his spine and tail.

He was quite a handsome specimen for a wolf. The only things marring his wildness were the glaring empty space where his right foreleg should be, the needle and IV in the back of his remaining forepaw and the massive white plastic cone that collared about his thick neck.

George showed absolutely no signs of aggression towards her. His tail continued to thump in a steady wag, his ears ticked towards her and he whined, shuffling towards her in the cramped cage.

"Poor boy." Regina melted for an animal in trouble, as she always had, and her hands went to the latch of the cage.

"Regina." David stepped forward and George looked at him hard, his ears pinning back.

Regina probed gently with magic and found nothing but the protectiveness of a wolf for a fellow pack member. George as a wolf knew Regina but he didn't know David and strangers were not to be trusted until they proved to be friendly or benign at the least.

"He's fine." Regina decided after a long moment of double checking. "He's not tame, but he won't hurt me. You might want to stand back though."

She waited until David took three large steps back to bar the door from George's escape should he try and folded his arms over his chest. She knew he'd have one resting on the butt of his gun.

Regina slowly opened the cage, making no sudden moves and keeping a weather eye on her wolf. She looked deep into his lurid blue eyes and pushed mentally at him.

Nothing.

George's tail thumped once or twice in an uncertain wag, he was aware of her questioning him but he didn't know the answers to her queries.

Almost nothing remained of George the man. A couple of personality traits, he was arrogant and standoffish to those he didn't like, he would not forget those who wronged him, but he had little concept of the past and –whilst Regina hadn't omitted his memories with her spell- she had taken the human element from them. The concept of vengeance. She had changed his mind, not his soul. He was still essentially George, but his life was just a string of experiences; something to be learned from but not agonised over. He accepted that Charming had betrayed him but also knew he had wronged the man by trying to hurt him in return.

That was not wolf and he had no desire to do it again.

Regina, she was wolf too as far as George was concerned. His Alpha. She had turned him into the wolf but that was hardly something to be angry about, he liked being a wolf.

Regina smiled and his tail wagged again. He was pleased when she was pleased.

"Okay, this might hurt a little." Regina leaned over and settled her hand on his paw, carefully withdrawing the needle from it. George's ears ticked back in discomfort, but he didn't bite or snap. Once he was free of it, Regina moved on to removing the collar from about his neck and she sat back on her heels. "Alright."

George scrambled to go to her and get out of the cage. He was clumsy and wobbly on three legs, his paws slithering on the metal, but Regina helped him stay upright and –after a moment- he made it out of the cage to sit in front of her.

"Good boy." Regina scratched his ear for him and then moved onto examining him. From nose to tail. He even allowed her to peel back his lips and show off his gigantic teeth. "Huh."

"What is it?"

"He's not an old wolf." Regina rested a hand against George's chest and looked over at David. "He's mature, certainly, but not a geriatric as I thought he'd be."

"Goody." David spoke flatly.

"He's not George anymore, David. Not in that way."

"You mean he doesn't remember trying to destroy my family?"

"He remembers." Regina tilted her head and thought how to explain. "He knows he did it, he knows the events that led up to doing it but he has no concept of why he did it. Revenge is a human emotion, not a wolf one."

"Hmm." David looked uncomfortable with that and Regina could identify. Hating someone for so long became a sort of comfort after a while. A touchstone. Things might change, the world turned upside down, loves lost and friends drifted away from, but hate usually remained a constant.

It was more than a little disconcerting when that stopped being the case.

"What about the hat? The magic?"

"I have no idea. It's in there, I can feel it, but it's as stable as it was in the hat. It may be in his bones. If it is, then it's there to stay, if not then his body will use it up the same way it would any other energy."

"He'll shit it out?"

Regina frowned.

"A little crudely put," she sighed at him, "but yes, that is accurate."

"Which means we won't be able to get Snow and Emma back without it."

"Maybe." Regina straightened and George lunged to his feet to stand beside her. He was so big that the top of his ears brushed her elbow. "Maybe not. There are still ways for Emma and Snow to return. Ways that are in the Enchanted Forest. If they're smart enough then they should be able to find them…if they survive everything else too."

David looked at the floor and Regina crossed to him, to touch her fingers to his elbow.

"I haven't stopped looking either. I'm in no hurry for them to return but you and Henry seem pretty attached to them so I suppose I had better do what I can."

David huffed a laugh and smiled. He looked up at her again with a flicker of hope in his eyes.

"I was ready to shoot him, you know." David nodded down to George. "When I thought that he'd taken Snow and Emma from me…I was ready to do bad things."

"But you didn't." Regina smiled. "That's what I'm here for."

"And for that I'm sorry."

Regina frowned, a little thrown by that. She shook her head.

"It would have happened anyway. I mean, if my mother had accidentally crossed the line too far when I was younger and killed me," she shrugged, "Rumplestiltskin would have found someone else for his protégé and they would have cast the curse."

David was frowning at her.

"What?"

"Your mother…?"

Regina's jaw clenched when she realised what she had said. She shook her head.

"It's nothing."

"No, it's not." David straightened away from the doors. "You just said she might have killed you."

Regina heaved a sigh.

"David…drop it."

David was quiet a long moment and when he finally spoke, he surprised her.

"Does Daniel know? I mean, can you talk to him about it?"

Regina blinked, caught off guard.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Obviously some part of you does or you wouldn't have mentioned it." David disagreed. "I'm just saying, it doesn't have to be me."

Regina rocked back on her heels and absently buried her fingers in George's thick fur. He leaned into her a little.

"Daniel…Daniel knows most of it."

"Maybe you should tell him all of it."

"No."

"No?"

"Why would I do that to him? My mother is dead. There's no vengeance for him to seek and I don't want him on that path even if there was." Regina shrugged helplessly. "I don't even know what made me think of her. Maybe it's all the family that seems to be attaching itself to me." She tried for a weak smile and David let her off the hook.

"Yeah, maybe." He nodded at George again. "What do you want to do with him?"

"Take him home, I suppose. With all the magic going through him, he's become very valuable and possibly dangerous if it manifests. Probably best if I keep an eye on him."

"You're sure?"

"The alternative is Granny and I don't think she's going to warm up to him any time soon." Regina smirked and David sighed.

"I suppose it's not like they can say wolves aren't allowed in the diner." David watched the wolf for a long moment and then looked up at Regina. "Breakfast?"

"God, yes!" Regina grinned. "I am starving."

"Alright, let's put him back in a bigger kennel for now. I know you say he's fine and I believe you but…let's give it a couple of days to see how the magic settles?"

"See? A little caution." Regina nodded. "You're learning."

"It's not one sided." David told her archly and led her to the kennels.

It was a few moments to settle George in a larger space of his own and a few moments more for Regina to convince him that she would be back soon. He looked so sad at being left alone and more than a little annoyed with being confined but he did it because she asked it of him.

David realised that George would certainly jump up onto the table for the vet to put him to sleep if Regina did so little as snap her fingers and point and that clinched it. He really wasn't George anymore.

They made it out the front doors of the shelter and down the steps down to street level before it went to shit.

"Regina!"

Regina whirled and was momentarily stopped from seeing who had shouted by David shoving her behind him in a pointless display of chivalry. Regina leaned around him and frowned.

"Blue?" She huffed a sigh and stepped around David. "What do you want?"

Regina didn't have time to even raise a shield before the blast of faerie magic sent her reeling.

She was kicked clean off her feet and sent skyward. She flew through the air for a heart stopping stretch of seconds, enough time to brace herself, and then crashed back down onto the road, tumbling over and over herself.

Regina didn't waste time feeling sorry for herself and flipped over her own shoulder, rising up into a crouch and glaring at Blue, her lips peeled back over her teeth in a silent snarl.

"Blue, put the wand down onto the ground and your hands over your head." David spoke calmly and clearly, his gun levelled at Blue.

"You defend her?" Blue frowned at David.

"She's an officer of the law and my friend. You're damn right I defend her."

"She is Evil!"

"She's not the one slinging magic around for no reason!" David cocked the gun. "Wand on the ground. NOW."

Blue twitched the wand instead and David's gun was suddenly gone. He made a sound of surprise but didn't let it bother him too much. He shrugged out of his jacket and rolled back his sleeves, his face set in a stubborn expression.

Regina was stunned. He intended to go hand to hand. With the _Blue Faerie?_

Madness.

Regina rose to her feet, wincing at the bruises she could already feel forming. Blue's eyes zeroed in on her, counting her as the more credible threat. So long as Regina continued to be so, David would be ignored. Which was just as well. Right now, Blue believed Regina to be using David, as soon as she figured out that Regina actually cared…well, Regina would deal with it if it came to that, but she wasn't about to let Blue kill her friend.

She wasn't sure about friends, or if she even really liked them, but she did want the chance to find out on her own.

Besides, Henry had lost enough family members because of Regina. She could hardly build one of her own at the cost of his.

"Blue, think about this." Regina realised the bad taste in her mouth was blood rather than a reaction to Blue. She wiped it away with the back of her hand. "They'll eat you alive."

"Once you're gone, the spell will be broken and they won't feel this false affection for you." Blue spat at her.

She was in her full righteous indignation. The most dangerous kind of fervour. She wasn't going to back down in a hurry. Regina's jaw clenched.

"You know that's not true." Regina tried to keep calm. She didn't summon magic, she made no aggressive move, she wasn't going to strike first.

If she did, she couldn't kill Blue.

This had to be self-defence.

"Those are Old Ways, Blue." Regina shook her head. "Granny invoked them, not me. I can't break the connection any more than you can and –if you kill me- they'll go mad. They'll tear this town apart to get to you."

"No they won't. I'll show them. What you did to George, you're slipping. Sinking back into your old habits." Blue kept her wand levelled at Regina and began to circle. Regina turned, keeping her in front of her, trying to put herself between Blue and David.

"George was dangerous, he was going to kill Ruby. I was protecting my family." Regina snarled.

"George was a citizen of this town who deserved a trial for his crimes."

"Like I got?" Regina scoffed. "Like Rumple got? Come on, Blue, you've never taken on a foe you couldn't beat or use to your advantage. I'm hardly likely to trust in your sense of justice or fairness."

"Better to face trial than to be maimed!"

"Oh, so a noose is better than losing a limb? Said the creature that's never faced a firing squad or felt death at their shoulder. You've lost touch with your humanity."

"I have lived for many years, it gives a long view." Blue's mask was melting, the immortal coming to the fore. Her true face.

"Bullshit." Regina smiled though it seemed more teeth than anything else. "The Dark One has to be ages with you and even he knows right from wrong. Even he can love. You're _nothing_. A hollowed out husk. A shell of a creature that deserves no less than to be crushed beneath my boot heel." Regina was pushing her. She had to. This was going to be a fight, regardless of what she did. Better here and now rather than in a crowded street filled with the rest of the town. "I may be evil, but at least I still _feel_."

"You DARE?!" Blue thundered, magic sparking from the tip of her wand. "You have seen nothing of what I have seen! Know nothing of the horrors I have averted from the people of our world. You're just the next in a long line of disasters I've had to avert."

"Little late for that, isn't it?"

Blue's face hardened.

"Admit it, the only reason you're taking me on now is because you're convinced you can finally _win._ Where was this altruism, this paladin sensibility, back in the Enchanted Forest? All the things I did, all the atrocities I committed, you could have stopped me at any time and you DIDN'T! Who's worse now, Blue?" Regina seethed, past hurts rising to the surface.

She had called to the Blue Faerie when she was younger, when she couldn't stand the tortures of her mother any longer. She had cried and wailed and _begged_ to be released from the hell that had been her upbringing. Her reward?

Silence.

"I only acted. I did something about how my life was turning out. I helped myself. You? You could have acted. You could have saved me when I was a child, you could have shown me there was another way, you could have done ANYTHING other than _ignore me_ because of who my mother was!" Regina was nearly screaming now.

"Not just your mother." Blue smirked. "You think you were the threat? A mere quailing child? You think _Cora_ was what stopped me from interfering? The Dark One and I have an agreement. He doesn't meddle in my business, and I leave his well enough alone. No longer. You're out from under the protection of his twisted purpose. Now? Now you're mine."

Regina was stunned. Rumplestiltskin? Her…? No. Blue was toying with her. This had to be a ploy. To distract her.

It worked.

Regina threw up her hand against the blast of magic, but too late. It hit her square in the chest, splashing over her, digging in, taking hold. She fought it viciously, aware that David was screaming, reaching for her. It cost her a precious second to cast him away from the magic lest it spill onto him too.

Teleportation spell.

_Never let yourself be taken to the second location._

She was sucked into the space Between. An airless void, the place all practitioners jaunted to between points of teleportation. She had no idea where she was going but she knew she didn't want to end up there.

Luckily for her, she wasn't a quailing child anymore and she certainly didn't need to rely on the help of anyone else to free her of this spell.

She picked it like a two pin lock and it snapped open, spitting her out into the real world again.

Regina had time to note they were still within the town's borders –of course they would be, Blue was homicidal, not stupid- and suck in a breath before she hit the ground. All the air coughed from her lungs when she crashed into the ground. She instinctively tucked and rolled, saving herself from broken bones with a hastily and poorly constructed shield.

It was several yards of skipping like a stone over water before she finally tumbled to a halt.

Seconds.

She had seconds before Blue realised she wasn't where she was supposed to be and she flogged herself into motion. She didn't have time to waste, she needed weapons, a defence. She wracked her brain for the old spells she had used in her training days, when Rumple had tried to kill her on a daily basis to 'toughen her up'.

She hadn't used them in years, she was out of practice.

She had never stopped studying magic, of course, but reading a book is different from practical work and Blue was no mortal duellist. She was an ageless creature of incredible power that was intent on hanging Regina's skin on her wall. This was not going to be a pretty fight.

Regina lifted herself, staggering to her feet, coughing, trying to remember how to breathe properly. She succeeded just in time for the noose to cinch around her neck.

Regina choked, pure faerie magic circling her throat, and was hauled off her feet like the other end of the rope was attached to a race car.

Her limp shield offered dim protection to her back and it was the only thing that stopped her from having the skin there flayed clean off.

She didn't bother reinforcing it and she worked frantically on the space she could still affect with her magic whilst the faerie power imprisoned her. Her own body. She lit up the different contingency spells she had lain into her bones for situations exactly like this and struck them to light like a match over a brick wall. She cried out in pain as the changes too effect and the last of her air left her lungs.

Regina left the ground again, arcing up in a wheel and smashed down into the road. Again and again, she was hauled up and cracked into the asphalt, shattering, buckling, destroying…the _road._

Regina's spells had gone into reinforcing her blood, her tissues, her bones, rather than the protective energies around her. The tough covering of the road gave way to her newly increased density. Basic law of physics; that which is moving faster, comes off better. Regina was moving very fast indeed.

Enough of this.

The next time Regina smashed into the road, crumpling through the top layer and into the dirt beneath, she used the last of her senses that weren't succumbing to asphyxiation to latch onto something. Her hand thrust through the earth until it hit metal and she manacled a grip there.

The spell rope yanked on her neck again but this time Blue found Regina immovable. She made a sound of surprise but by that point Regina already had her feet under her.

One hand on the mains pipe, the other wrapping around the rope, ignoring the burns, she hauled.

Oh yes, the wards had also made Regina a lot stronger too.

Blue was sent flying, feet clean off the ground, reeling across the street and smashing into the body of a pick-up so hard it nearly folded in half.

Regina attacked the magic next. Nearly pure force, no lock to pick as it were, but everything had a breaking point.

Regina set her hands to the noose about her neck and hauled. She bared her teeth, every muscle in her arms, shoulders and back straining against the immoveable force. She didn't need to pull it off, not entirely, just…enough…to…

Regina collapsed to her knees in relief when she managed to stretch the rope for an inch of give. She sucked in great whooping breaths, the red receding from her vision, her heart pounding in her ears. She felt dizzy, with relief or a lungful of oxygen she couldn't tell, but it gave her a chance to glance about her surroundings.

"Yes, because turning up on the doorstep of a wolf den intent on murdering one of their pack is guaranteed to endear you to them." Regina wheezed.

Main Street, they were on Main Street. Right outside Granny's diner. She supposed she shouldn't be surprised that she had managed to break Blue's spell over Granny's lair. She drew power from this place too now.

The pick-up exploded.

Regina flinched back from the sound, whirling to pay attention to her possibly imminent demise and her brows rose when Blue peeled apart the car with her magic and stepped onto the street once more. She looked _pissed._

Lifting her wand, the rope of magic around Regina's neck still attached to it, she gave a contemptuous flick.

Regina was sent sprawling again but she had her fingers under the rope now, she was no longer choking.

Which left her clear to think.

Blue hauled her closer and closer, shrinking the rope, bringing Regina to within arm's reach and Regina bided her time. she waited until Blue reached down, waited until her fingers gripped Regina's hair and she fell back on her old faithful; flames.

Regina set fire to herself.

Blue shrieked when the flames raced up her arm towards her face, setting that ridiculous blue cloak of hers aflame. She reeled backwards, slapping at the fire, trying desperately to put it out and Regina smiled a grim smile.

She got to her feet, wreathed entirely in flame. Okay, this was better, now they were getting even.

Blue tossed her cloak to the ground, stomping on the flames and that was her first mistake. Now that it was no longer on her, it was hardly a threat. People always made that mistake with fire. If there was nothing for it to eat, it would eventually starve. When it was done with Blue's cloak, it would burn out on the barren road.

Regina lunged, not going for Blue, but her wand. If she could get that, things would definitely sway in her favour.

She should have known better.

Blue's skin might be vulnerable to Regina's magic, might burn in flame, her bones might break under Regina's strength. She relied entirely on her magic to keep her safe so it was pretty idiotic of Regina to assume that she could just _take_ Blue's wand from her.

The anti-theft charm exploded like a damn grenade.

Regina was sent reeling, blasted off her feet again. Only the increased density of her body and the charms she had already set to stop herself from being consumed by her own flame saved her from being blown to smithereens and burned to a crisp. As it was, she was flung twenty feet, broke another furrow in the road when she ploughed into it and her fire was snuffed like a candle.

"Blue, what are you doing?!" Ruby threw open the door of the diner and skidded to a halt only when Granny grabbed her shoulders to stop her.

"What should have been done a long time ago." Blue, now that she had an audience, realised that she looked like a train wreck. She straightened her shirt and sweater, dusted her skirt off and flipped her ragged hair out of her eyes.

She didn't kill the magic from her wand that still snared Regina.

"You can't!" Ruby snarled. "She hasn't done anything wrong."

"She maimed King George." Blue moved to stand over a coughing Regina, trying to pry her face out of the road.

"So he wouldn't kill me!" Ruby struggled against Granny's hold, not noticing that the old woman's eyes had flashed silver. "She could have killed him, but she didn't. She let him live."

"This time. Just. He might well have died from his injuries." Blue reached down and gripped Regina by the hair, hauling her up onto her knees. Just the right beheading height.

"I knew what I was doing." Regina's voice was a hoarse croak. "Evidently more so than you do, you've just declared war on the wolves."

"Sacrifices must be made." Blue's voice was cool.

"The Charmings will never forgive you, the dwarves will turn. No more faerie dust," Regina rasped, warming to her subject, "heh, you've just crippled your entire race."

"The Charmings are not irreplaceable." Blue spoke mildly and Regina snarled. She would not lose David, Granny and Ruby. Not to this bitch. Not to anyone.

"You really think you can take on the entire town?"

"Do you really think I cannot?" Blue wrenched her head back, her wand reeling in the rope of the spell until it dug into the soft skin just under Regina's chin. "Truly?"

"Not while I still live."

"Not a condition you shall suffer from much longer, I assure you." Blue smiled but there was no human emotion to it. Mimicry. Nothing more and nothing less.

"Let. Her. _GO_." Ruby's wolf was rising.

Her eyes were glowing gold, there seemed to be too many teeth in her mouth, her lips had turned black and the skin over her face seemed too tight. She prowled down the steps of the diner, Granny's attempts to hold her back giving way to the newly strengthened wolf in Ruby.

"This is none of your concern, Red. You can give up fealty to the witch with no repercussion from me." Blue spoke to Ruby calmly, she had no idea. She had no idea that Ruby could take on wolf form without the moon.

Ooh, what a nasty shock that was going to be.

Ruby grinned.

"Funny, I was gonna say something similar to you. Let my sister go and I won't eat your heart from your chest so she can crush it." Ruby's teeth were definitely too sharp now, her eyes burning like coals. Her voice was too big for her and she was taller, her hands curling into claws.

"What has she done to you?" Blue turned, the wand dropping from Regina's throat and that was all Ruby had been waiting for.

She shifted mid-air. Her human shape melting and reforming into the wolf which –if at all possible- seemed bigger than usual. Crimson magic bled from her eyes in vapour trails which tracked her movements and she tackled Blue head on.

The air rushed from the faerie's lungs with a whoosh and she was sent flying under Ruby's weight.

The wolf snarled and raved like a beast possessed and her huge jaws closed around Blue's arm and shook. Hard.

Blue cursed and struggled but –even maddened- Ruby wasn't trying to kill her. Not even hurt her really. Massive teeth gouged into her sleeve and scraped her skin, but Blue knew that Ruby could have sheared off her arm at the elbow with a single clip of her teeth had she been of a mind to.

Regina was knocked off her feet both by Ruby's linebacker impersonation and the rope of magic around her neck. It stretched away from the wand so she wasn't dragged along for the ride but she was still toppled to the ground and scraped over the road. She scrambled at the noose of magic around her neck but it was useless. It was pure faerie magic, a manifestation of Blue's power cinched about Regina's throat.

Regina cursed. Fluently and at length.

"Get. _OFF!"_

Ruby yelped as she was sent skyward, a mushroom cloud of magic blasting out of Blue and forcing the wolf away. Ruby hit the road poorly, something cracking in her. She tried to regain her feet but she yelped again and collapsed to the street.

"Ruby!" Regina threw herself to her feet, forgetting about the magical noose restraining her and choked when her feet kicked out from under her and the rope dragged her back down to the ground.

"You forced me to do this." Blue regained her feet, yanking at her wand and flipping Regina onto her back with the magic burning around her neck. "You made me hurt her, my friend, my ally."

"_**GET AWAY FROM MY GIRLS!"**_

Regina's eyes widened and she twisted to see what had spoken. What she saw, had she not already been on the ground, would have floored her.

Granny descended the steps of the diner and the magic crackled around her like a stormcloud. Her eyes sparked silver just as Ruby's had red and she…she _shifted._

"Impossible!" Blue began to hurriedly back away from the _massive_ wolf that hit the street on all fours.

A shining silver grey wolf. Molten eyed and more silver magic pouring from its eyes and gusting from its mouth, the monster werewolf advanced on Blue, black lips peeled back over knife like teeth and a growl that shook the street rumbling from within its chest.

Werewolves were always large, Ruby and Regina were the size of ponies in their wolf shapes, but it would seem that wolves got bigger as they got older and Granny was nearly a hundred years old. A wolf the size of a rhino with all of its maternal instinct focussed to a razor's edge and aimed at Blue.

It couldn't last, it couldn't possibly last. Regina did the numbers in her head and they came back a very uncomfortable and definite negative. The mass differential and Granny's age…the strain might very well kill her within seconds if Blue didn't get there first. The stress on her heart alone should have felled her through the simple act of shifting at such an age but it would seem that Granny either didn't know or didn't care that matriarch wolves weren't supposed to be able to change after a certain age.

She roared, a deafening sound that spat sparks and flames of silver magic, and launched herself.

Regina tensed, if she killed Blue, it was over. If she took the lead faerie's head, that would be it. War would be declared and the other faeries, without Blue to keep them in check –as odd as that sounded- could become even more dangerous than they already were.

But Granny wasn't after Blue.

She fell on the magic tying her and Regina together with a ferocity that Ruby could only hope to aspire to. Her jaws crunched down onto the blue rope and she clawed at it with meat hook talons. She savaged the magic, uncaring that it set her mouth to smoking and flickered blue flames over her fur. Not even all the force Blue could muster could hope to hold up under that.

The spell snapped like a twig and Regina summoned her magic in that single instant. She surged to her feet and threw out her arm. She sent Blue flying, to give her time and then hurried to Granny.

"Turn back!" She gripped the wolf by the face and turned her to look into her glowing silver eyes. "Turn back before you kill yourself."

Granny, seeing that Regina could defend herself once more, sagged. Her eyes rolled back in her head, the magic washed over her, and she collapsed into Regina's arms in human form.

Regina wasted no time in shouldering her weight and struggling over to Ruby's side. Another hurried burst of magic and the ribs that had been cracked by Blue's attack healed. Ruby's eyes snapped open on a snarl and she flashed to her feet, teeth bared.

"Calm down, everything's fine. I need you to take Granny to Rachel. She shifted, she turned, I don't know how, but she needs a doctor."

Ruby whined and shifted. She caught Granny when Regina handed her over.

"What about you?"

"I'll be fine." Regina's voice was grim. "Nobody hurts me and mine."

"That's not what I meant."

"I know." Regina nodded shortly. "I'm not going to kill her." Though she might sorely wish Regina had by the time the sorceress was done with her.

"You're sure?"

"See to Granny." Regina said instead. "Find David. I want this bitch arrested for assault, breach of the peace, pissing me off and anything else that might occur to me."

"Go to it, Regina." Ruby grinned with a lot of teeth and not much smile. She scooped Granny up off the street and then disappeared. A blur of movement all that was left in her wake.

Just in time really. A blue fireball of magic engulfed Regina as soon as the two wolves were gone and Regina abruptly found her temper. The magic forced its way into her nose and mouth attempting to choke her again.

Regina didn't fight it. She threw back her head, clenched her fists, and swallowed it whole. She sucked the magic down her gullet and into her body. Letting out a gusting sigh, magic plumed from between her lips.

She turned to glare at Blue. She waited for the right moment, waited for the doubt to show in the whites of the faerie's eyes. She didn't snuff the magic spilling from her eyes and mouth, she didn't need to, she smiled instead.

"Well then." Regina bared her teeth. "Looks like it's just you and me."

"That's impossible. You're allergic to faerie magic."

"No," Regina advanced on Blue, her hands open, her stance unthreatening in complete antithesis to her tone and the flashes of magic snapping from her teeth with every word, "I just don't like it."

"You can't possibly win."

"I'm going to break your wand."

Blue's eyes widened. Even the mention of it, never mind the utter surety of the intent behind the words, was enough to strike fear into her. Without her wand, a faerie was just as crippled as if their wings had been removed. Regina wasn't going to kill her, she was going to maim her. She was going to take her power and leave her alive to suffer the consequences. She would lose her position as leader of the faeries, lose her magic, lose everything.

"You can't." She raised the wand, prepared to defend herself. Regina just smirked at her.

"I'm going to snap it over my knee like a twig."

"Not even the Dark One can do that!"

"Then it's a good thing I'm not the Dark One, isn't it?" Regina advanced, closer and closer and Blue began to panic.

This wasn't the Evil Queen she knew. This was different. The maddened indiscriminate rage was no longer there. Regina wasn't out to hurt Snow White and the world anymore, she was going to hurt Blue. All that power, all that malice, focussed on one person.

"You promised Henry you wouldn't use magic." Blue tried to stop her wand from shaking. She was beginning to get the inkling that she had perhaps bitten off more than she could chew. She had been banking on Regina's weakness to faerie magic. Certain that if she had gotten it into her it would kill her.

What had Regina done to herself that the purity of faerie magic couldn't latch onto the cancer in her soul?

"I don't need magic."

Blue yelped when Regina was suddenly _there_. She just appeared inside the faerie's guard and Blue was sent sprawling by the vicious right to her jaw.

She let fly a mean curse and Regina backhanded it away without missing a beat. It scorched across the street and burned into the road.

Blue crawled backwards, building another spell. Regina advanced and advanced and advanced.

"They'll turn against you if you kill me. They'll see you for what you are."

"I'm not going to kill you." Regina snatched Blue up by her cheap sweater and smashed her fist into the faerie's nose. Blue was knocked onto her ass only to be lifted by Regina again and suffer another hammering blow to the face. She cast wildly, staggering Regina back a step when she was forced to catch the spell and deflect it away into a street lamp.

Which exploded.

Regina danced back from the blast, the wind of it tearing at her clothes.

Something plinked against the road and Regina glanced down, stilling when she saw her badge lying there.

The badge David had given her.

It was only then that Regina realised how she was dressed. She still wore her clothes of the night before. Tattered, scorched and dirtied, but still the uniform of the Sheriff's office. Still the colours that marked the alliance between the Evil Queen and Prince Charming. Still the pennant of the closest thing this world had to a knight. The thing that Henry wanted to be most.

_Damn it_.

Regina very nearly growled. There was nothing –nothing- she wanted more right at that moment than to trounce Blue with the beating she so sorely deserved…but she wasn't herself anymore. She was the deputy to the Sheriff. Officers of the law didn't posture and show off, at least they shouldn't, they should protect and serve.

Regina might have been a crazed psychopath, she might have ruled her kingdom under a veil of fear, but she hadn't been terrible at ruling. Not loved, but not incompetent either.

"Alright," Regina brushed a burning ember that had landed on her shoulder to the ground, "you've had your fun. You've bloodied my nose in front of the masses and you've made your grievances known. Now back off."

Regina stooped and picked up her badge, pinning it to her smoking shirt.

"What? You think I'm going to stop because of that piece of tin?" Blue prowled closer and Regina noticed Ruby arriving with a windswept David.

"Not really, but I have to try." Regina sucked in a breath and muscled her temper down. She wanted to pull the woman's skin off and feed it to her but the cost of that might be a higher price than she was willing to pay.

"False humility ill suits you, majesty." Blue's tone was that same sickly sweet condescending wheedle that made Regina want to gouge out her own eyeballs. It always had. Self-righteous little Christmas decoration.

"My ego has its own ZIP code, Blue. If I can put mine aside, surely you can. Leave now and I won't arrest your sorry ass for wanton property destruction." Regina's temper was getting away from her. She had to end this soon.

"I'll leave as soon as I've done what I came to do." Blue raised her wand. "Witch, I suffer thee not to live."

"Oh for…" Regina rolled her eyes but faltered when Daniel rounded the corner of Granny's, coming straight from the guest house.

He was dressed in a pressed white shirt open at his neck, his hair was neatly combed, he wore a dark pair of jeans and his shoes had been polished to a high shine. He carried a bunch of red roses in his hand.

Their date.

She had forgotten with all the magic flying round.

The first promise she had made to him in forty years and she'd broken it because of some blue insect with a hard on for making her life difficult. She had been bloodied, beaten, set fire to, she looked like a train wreck. Blue looked pretty much ruffled but otherwise unharmed and that was all Daniel saw.

He took in the situation at a glance and his body tensed, the flowers dropped to the ground, his face tightened with a fierce expression and he lunged, pushing through the crowd, intent on getting to Blue before she could so much as ruffle Regina's hair.

"No!" Regina teleported, exchanging her usual cloud of purple cloud of fanfare for a blast of sound and a corona searing flash of light. She was behind Blue before anyone could even blink it away. Her hand manacled around Blue's wrist, twisting it behind her back and rattling a pair of handcuffs from her belt.

Regina was fast, really fast, but Blue had been ready for her to try something.

Of course Regina would teleport into her blind spot.

She had already been turning before the flashbang of Regina's spell could destroy her vision and she swung wildly with her wand.

Regina screamed when the tapered point of the crystal rod jammed into her neck.

Regina staggered back, the wand tearing from Blue's grip. Regina clapped her hand to the wand now sticking out the meat of her neck, her blood was scalding against her fingers and she fell on her ass in the middle of the street.

Roaring, there was a roaring in her ears.

Nope, not in her ears.

A gigantic shadow loomed over her, blocking all light from falling on her.

It was Daniel.

Regina could only watch in horror.

His skin darkened, an all over body bruise, his clothes tore and shredded, light blasting from the silver scar on his chest. His mouth split, lips melting away to reveal lengthening teeth and curling fangs. His hair grew into a wild mane and a tail sprang from his back, lashing the air so quickly that it cracked like a whip. Green light spilled from his eyes like headlamps.

Regina stared, shock pouring through her.

The monster loomed over Blue, nearly eight feet tall. One gigantic clawed hand clapped over her skull, hauling her up off the ground like a doll. The other gripped both her legs in the massive span of his fingers and he gave a short yank. Something popped, snapping, and Blue screamed.

Then he flung her away.

Across town.

The monster, for there was nothing left of Daniel now, he was gone, lost, threw back his head and _roared._

Regina felt her eyes burn and she could only whisper one word.

"_Hyde."_


End file.
